Midnight quickie

Haaaa, made you look! 

So mature of me.  

We had quite a busy day today.  I was home, all day, for maybe an hour.  Here, there, everywhere--I need a clone.

One of my tasks was taking the boys to get their haircut.  Mr W has been taking care of Ben and Ryan's since they prefer to sport a nearly bald shortness, just like Dad.  But Dad has been really busy lately, and since I was taking Nolan in already, I figured might as well take care of all of them. 

Woohoo, not a wait at all, maybe five minutes.

We'd finished up and were heading out to the van.  As I turned to open the doors, there was a young man standing next to the van parked next to mine.

He graciously said, "Go ahead."  I was pleased about this, because parking lot etiquette, or the lack thereof, makes me crazy.  People don't care that you are strapping kids into carseats, they just want the spot next to you.  No, don't mind me as I bump your butt with my car door.  I hate it, and you'd think other parents would understand, hey, she's got a stroller, but noooo, it's all about 'me first, me first.'

Anyway.  He struck up a little conversation with me, not anything too weird, just along the lines of normal "take your time, don't worry about it" niceties.  Asked if they'd gotten their haircut; lots of "that's cool" and "have a nice day." 

I got into my seat, and he got into his van.  Hmm.  I'd assumed he was driving off or something, but he sat in the passenger side.  I thought he was waiting to go past me into the Subway right in front of me, but no.  He didn't invade my space or anything like that, and I'd gotten everyone into the van fairly quickly, so I was shrugging it off when I hear a chorus of voices:

"Who was that?" "Who was  that stranger?" "Did you know him?"  "Why were you talking to him?"  "Don't you know about 'stranger danger'?"  "Yeah, you tell us not to talk to strangers.."

"Chill, boys.  He was just waiting for us to get into the van.  He was just being courteous so I could get Audrey strapped in."

"Mo-oom.  We don't like it when you do that,"  chimes Ben.

"Yeah, he was a stranger," Ryan weighs in.

Sigh.  Great.  Now I'm feeling nervous.  Lock my doors.

"Mo-om.  He liked you,"  Nolan says..

"Oh, he did not, Nolan."  I suppress a giggle.  "I hardly think a chubby Mom with four kids is parking-lot-pick-up material, mijo."

"Well, then why did he keep talking to you?"

"I don't know."

Meet Nolan, my chaperone.

I still don't think he was doing anything except the idle chatter of someone that's thinking "Hurry up, lady."

But as I drove away, I caught myself turn my head so Nolan couldn't see me smile.