On Thursday night Stacey took Jonathan with her to Bible study. I stayed at home with Julia and had planned to finish up some yard work, put Julia down for bed, and then relax a little bit. Over lunch I had played soccer so sitting on the couch sounded like a great idea. When Stacey left for Bible study Julia and I were outside watering the flowers. We waved goodbye and continued our little "project" together. After finishing that part up, I got out the hose and Julia helped me spray some Revive soil treatment on the lawn.
About halfway through the Revive the ice cream truck turned onto our street. A few doors down he stopped for some neighborhood kids. Julia had seen the ice cream truck many times before but as far as she knew the truck's sole purpose was to play music for everyone's enjoyment. That night the "music truck's" magical secret was revealed to Julia. You should have seen her face when she found out that the "music truck" was handing out ice cream. She lit up.
Of course, I didn't have any cash (I never carry cash) so I couldn't buy her any ice cream. She kept asking and asking for ice cream until the truck drove away...to which she said, "awww". For some reason she couldn't comprehend that the "music truck" takes a different kind of money then what I had at the time. She kept asking and asking for ice cream from the truck until I finally gave in and told her that after I finished with the lawn we could drive by Dairy Queen and get some. Of course, she got really excited about getting ice cream. I figured since Stacey was meeting the girls at an ice cream shop a little father-daughter ice cream date would be fun. About 5 minutes passed (Julia was still excited) until I realized that Stacey had taken both car seats with her.
Obviously, I couldn't take Julia to get ice cream without a car seat. I guess ice cream was going to have to wait until tomorrow night. I crouched down to Julia's level and explained to her that we couldn't go get ice cream after all since Mommy had taken the car seat. I suggested that I make her something chocolately tonight and that I promised we would get ice cream tomorrow night. Julia was crushed and broke into tears. "But you said Dadda..." I tried to explain to her that we didn't have a car seat, but through her tears she suggested that "I sit in your lap". She cried and cried. I had to think fast. No neighbors were around so I couldn't leave her and drive to the store and I certainly couldn't drive to the store with Julia in my truck. Then, I noticed the jogging stroller. Despite it being the last thing I wanted to do, it was my only option.
So, I told Julia we could still get ice cream tonight but she'd have to ride in the stroller. At first she still wanted to drive but finally accepted my offer. Since it was getting late and it was already her bedtime, I put her in the stroller and took off running to Baskin Robbins. As a Dad, I just couldn't let her down especially since I said we would get ice cream. My legs were tired but Julia kept saying how much fun the ride in the stroller was. Yeah, fun for you, I thought. Round trip it was about 3 miles, but she was happy. In the end, it made me happy too.