You know I jinxed my evening with all the lovey dovey crap I wrote yesterday. I admit, in a moment of wedding memory euphoria I really believed all that romance, but thankfully my world slaps me right back in line when I'm getting to high on my perfect marriage horse and reminded me that marriage is about surviving each other as much as loving each other!


We mistakenly did NOT get a babysitter and go out for a romantic diner last night. Because we bought a new house and a new car in the last few months, we figured the 40 bucks for kid watching on top of a 100 dollar meal was not the best way to say I love you. Instead we went for the a total $30 at Damon*s which for those of you who don't live in the Midwest or east is a bar and grill that has decent ribs and TV's with little speakers at your table. Why such a lovely ambiance for the magical 9 years? Easy - Wednesday is kids night which means 99cents for the kids meals AND one of the TV's plays cartoons so the kids eat and watch the show in silence and hubby and I actually get to enjoy a meal.


We were through the first beers and salads and there were smiles and laughter all around when whamo- My little Prince decides he's had enough and is ready to go. "mooooommmmmm, how much longer, I want to go home and play with my friends?" Reason didn't work, so hubby decides to do one of his, if I can't do modern day parenting, I will digress into a dictator, kindred spirit of Teto, impersonation and started flinging threats and punishments across the table in a whispered yell. Great.


Little Prince is now buried under my arm crying while Little Miss is happily watching teen titans while dropping macaroni on herself because she's too engrossed in the show to bother to look where he fork is headed. I look at hubby and say, can you please stop we're supposed to be having a nice evening. This quickly devolved into the classic, You're too easy on him, oh yeah we'll you're an asshole fight and whola marital bliss.


By the time we got home, everyone cooled down, and the kids ready for bed, my daughter realized that she had not had nearly enough attention and decided that there was no way in hell she was going to sleep in her room and that she could outlast and out scream all of us. Again hubby, channelling Franco, decided that this was the day Little Miss was going to stop her imitation of a girl in need of an exorcism behavior and he would lay down the law by flinging out some punishments for her as well. Now, this girl has been a great sleeper her whole life who we've never had to coerce to go to bed, who you read one book to and leave her alone with a stack and she's asleep in 10. So could it be that maybe something is wrong, since she's not doing her NORMAL behavior? Nope, the lord of the house has spoken.


Not one to be outdone by a screaming child and husband I declare that it's time we all stopped having fun and just started listening to the lord master who will bark his commands to his loyal servants and we'll all bow down and beg for his kindness. Yeah, that didn't go over so well. He stormed off, I took Little Miss and put her in my room and turned on the TV and told her to relax - hello, she'll be asleep in 10 minutes then we move her, not a big deal.


Finally, kids in bed, head down stairs, he's sitting in the chair staring at the TV with steam shooting out of his ears. And I pronounced with all the moral superiority I could muster - someday, not today, we are definitely going to talk about parenting styles because I think you're a dictator and you think I go too easy on them, but I'll tell you what, when they're 30 they're going to like me and think you're an ass - do you want that? (if you listen carefully you'll hear happy anniversary love of my life in that sentence).


He glowered at me and barked - they need to fucking listen. I made a face and said "how can they when you're so busy shouting no one can hear a damn thing". And at the moment the phone rang and we knew it was my mother calling to wish us a happy anniversary and as I answered I said, boy Mom, you should have seen us, we managed to reenact the last 9 years in the last 3 hours fights and all. He laughed, I laughed, Mom sounded confused and the peace was made.


You think this is the part where I talk about hot anniversary AND make up sex right? Nope, Little Miss was freaked out all night and instead of being tired but satisfied, I'm just tired from being up all night with her. Did he get up once - nope! Did I punch him the face for not waking up - nope! Best Anniversary gift I could give the man. As for the parenting style talk, I'll bring that up when the kids have left for college, no sense ruining a good thing.