I Love My Husband & He Loves Us

My husband, Jim, and I recently took a trip to New York. An official honeymoon. It was the first trip since we'd met two and a half years earlier that we'd ever taken alone. It makes sense when you think about it. I'd been a single mom for five years by the time Jim came into the picture. Up until that point my son and I did everything together - just the two of us. I wasn't suddenly going to ditch him - leave him home with a sitter so I could do things with someone else that I used to do with him. And I couldn't imagine not sharing the experiences with him. He was even there when Jim proposed to me on the Prime Meridian in England and came with us to Hawaii right after our November wedding. Thankfully my thought process with regards to sharing life with my son - our son - makes sense to Jim. He gets it. He gets us.

So back to that trip we took alone. Our honeymoon. We were able to go alone because my son was going with his dad to visit family in Baltimore. It only made sense that if he was away we should take advantage of the opportunity. My dad had offered us a beautiful NY apartment in which we could stay free of charge, so we booked our tickets and started making plans. But how could I go to the Statue of Liberty without my son? Or the Empire State Building?

Enter Google. Did you know that Baltimore is only a 4-hour car ride from NY? And on the way there are a lot of great places, such as Philadelphia's Liberty Bell and the country's oldest jail, to stop?

The funny thing is I always said the man I married the second time around wouldn't mind if my son came with us on our honeymoon. Let me tell you what a good man Jim is. He not only didn't have a problem with my son coming, he didn't have a problem with my ex-husband and my ex-in-laws coming, as well! I know, I know. I'm a nut. But it wasn't for the entire time, just for about 36 hours!

Together we visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Eli was sick with a cold so I took him back to the apartment while my in-laws did their thing and my new husband and former husband toured Chelsea together. We all met up again that evening to see The Blue Man Group. Everyone loved it, but my son's a percussionist so it was especially exciting for him. We then shared a little post-theater dinner with the family, had a slumber party (with just my son) at our apartment, and got back together again the next morning for a visit to the Empire State Building. (Would you believe we ran into one of my son's classmates at the top?) We then went took a subway to Bleeker street, had lunch, then walked through SoHo. They left that evening and Jim and I returned to our official honeymoon.

So I love my husband. Because he loves us. And we all, my ex-husband and his family included, really love my son. We wouldn't hang out together if we didn't, right? But we all want to be around him and we all want to make his life easier, so we do.