Just Corbin & Me

This summer I faced a wonderful work schedule that consisted of four days on and three day weekends…every single week.  I was so excited and began imagining all of the things I could do with all of those free Mondays.

I imagined great family days at the beach.  And I also imagined great days all by myself- either sitting by the ocean or lounging on my couch watching trashy reality television (obviously, you guys are all realizing by now that this is my guilty pleasure).

I had the choice to make those Mondays be ME days or to be family-focused days.  Brian was approved for five days a week of summer school and Corbin had signed up to go to an art day camp.

In the end, I chose to send Brian to summer school on Mondays.  But I chose to keep Corbin home on Mondays.

Corbin gets shafted with Mom-attention way more than I want to admit.  He is my special, first true love, firstborn son and I shower him with love at any chance I can but I’d be lying if I didn’t recognize that Brian commands attention on a whole other level.

momandmedaysCorbin was so excited about our “Mom and Corbin Mondays”.  Each Sunday night we map out what we will do.  Will it be a day at the ocean or the pool?  Will we hike?  Will we go see a movie?  He gets happy just to go to places that don’t carry gluten-free choices like Dunkin’ Donuts.

Last Monday followed a weekend of us staying home to do Brian’s clean-out.  So I was in desperate need of doing errands.  Halfway through our mundane tasks I turned to Corbin and said, “I’m sorry that our special day is running around and doing errands.”

He smiled, patted my arm, and said, “It’s okay Mom.  Even this is cool to do just the two of us.  We can take our time and look at things and don’t have to worry about Brian having too many places to go to.  It’s nice.”

It was true.  A lot of times we can’t do that many errands in a row if Brian is in tow.  And we can’t lazy our way through them, grab a Coolata in the midst, and take a pause to look at all the new toys we want to add to our wish lists.  We probably don’t spend as much time talking and laughing with each other because I’m so hyper focused on getting through the errands without any unnecessary meltdowns.

But for Corbin to recognize that meant the world to me.  Sure, it was a little sad that he realized how much more relaxed the outings were without his brother.  But it was heartwarming that he could see that time together, just the two of us, no matter how it is spent is priceless.

Heather Nelson

About Heather Nelson

Heather resides in Rockland where she is busy juggling life as a newlywed, a mom to two boys (one of which who has autism), a part time job in direct sales, and a full-time job as a pediatric occupational therapy assistant. She has a love for live music, karaoke, and cheering on the underdogs.