Journals of a Stay-at-home-Dad. Day 5. The weekend is here. At first, I thought this would mean a reprieve from expedition duties. Working Wife laughed and assured me this was not the case. Unless more food is procured, Small Rabbit has the look in his eye that he'll start eating the walls, literally. Small Human is glad to have more people around as well. Seeing as how there are more people in the domicile today, small game just won't cut it. Today I quest in search of big game. Wish me luck, I'm sure the lines at Wegmans will be huge.

Jim finished typing and moments later his latest update was posted to his Facebook account. He spun around in his chair to see Pam nursing Cece on the couch. She was humming softly to their daughter while gently rocking her back and forth. Pam looked up and saw Jim smiling at the two of them. Her own grin bloomed on her face.

“Newest journal entry all up and published?”

“Yup,” Jim turned back to grab the laptop. “Want to read it?”

“Sure.”

Taking care to go easy on his bad foot, Jim shuffled across the room and sat down next to his wife and daughter. He held the laptop up so Pam could read easily. She let out a snort of laughter when she got to the end of the brief message.

“You know what’s one of the good things about you keeping these things short?” she asked.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t have to constantly hound you to get off Facebook and keep an eye on Cece.”

Jim smiled and leaned forward to kiss her. “I’m glad you’re not hounding me either.”

Pam grinned back for a moment before looking back down at Cece. She adjusted the small girl to a slightly better position on the wrap around pillow Cece was laying on while nursing. “Could you double check the grocery list please? Hopefully she’ll go down for a nap once she’s finished and I can pump. We can head out after that.”

“No problem,” Jim assured her.

Stumping to the kitchen, Jim found the grocery list on the table and looked it over. He opened a few cabinets to ensure they items listed were gone or nearly empty. The box of granola bars only had one left, so he took the last bar out and opened the trash to throw out the empty box. The sight of another empty carton caused him to pause for an instant before he threw in the granola bar box. After going over the rest of the list, he added one more item to it.

“Good to go honey?” Pam walked into the kitchen carrying a snoozing Cece in one arm and two bottles of breast milk in the other hand to deposit in the fridge.

“Yup, I also added something to the list.” Jim handed over the slip of paper.

Pam shut the fridge door to take the list from Jim. “Yeah? What’s....,” she paused sheepishly as she read what he’d written down. “That?” she finished.

“Someone owes me ice cream since they ate the last of my Moose Tracks,” Jim smirked.

Pam’s eyes glanced up from the grocery list to meet Jim’s. She stood rooted in her spot and shuffled nervously for a moment. 

Jim waved a smug hand at her. “Care to explain why all the ice cream is gone?”

“I was hungry?” she tried.

Jim just tilted his head back and laughed at her. “Just tell me when. That’s all I ask.”

“Last night. It was after my turn to calm Cece down. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I had a little snack is all.”

“A little snack?” Jim’s eyes shot up in surprise. “There was over half a tub of Moose Tracks left!”

“Okay maybe not so little,” Pam admitted. “I’m sorry.”

Jim chuckled and stepped over to her. He carefully set his hands on her shoulders and leaned down for a kiss. “It’s okay. But if you want some of my ice cream honey, please, just ask me first.”

“I’ll try,” said Pam.

“Thank you.”

An hour later, the small family was pushing a cart through the frozen food section of Wegmans. Jim was pushing while making faces at Cece who was grinning right back at him. Pam was scanning down the list making sure they hadn’t missed anything in the other aisles.

“Okay we got the spaghetti, tomato sauce, milk.... oh shoot! I skipped the baking aisle. I need chocolate chips.” She looked up at Jim. “Can you stay here while I run back and get them?”

“Go ahead. I’ll keep the Kiddo company.”

Pam leaned in to give him a peck on the cheek. “Thanks hon. Be right back.”

Digging into their diaper bag, Jim pulled out a rattle and started shaking it in front of Cece. She happily reached for it and started swinging around on her own.

“Oh, she’s adorable. You're such a good Dad to play with her while also doing the shopping.”

Jim looked over at the middle-aged woman who had stopped next to him in the aisle to comment. He was about to reply but she kept going.

“What beautiful eyes, and such soft hair. I just have to touch it.” She reached her hand towards Cece.

“Excuse you,” Jim said somewhat stiffly and put his arm across Cece’s car seat to block the woman’s hand.

The woman pulled back in surprise. “What?”

Jim furrowed his eyes. “Do you normally make it a habit of just reaching out and touching random children?”

“What?” she repeated herself. “She’s a baby. I can’t help myself. When I see a baby, I just have to touch them. Same thing if I see a pregnant lady. There’s nothing better than feeling a baby kick.”

Without preamble, Jim reached forward and put his hand on her stomach. As soon as his hand touched her coat she jumped back as if scorched.

“What are you doing?” she all but shouted at him.

“Well if it’s okay for you to just come up and touch random children or pregnant women, you must be okay with random people touching you without permission. Turnabout’s fair play after all.”

She didn’t say anything, just stood gaping at Jim.

“If you want to touch anyone, best to get their permission first,” Jim went on. “Also, while I appreciate the comment on me being a good Dad, you should say the same thing to my wife if you see her. I assure you, she does a lot more than I do right now to raise our daughter. I’m sure she and many other mothers would be grateful for a kind word every now and then.”

The woman opened and closed her mouth a few times in surprise. Wordlessly she stalked away from Jim and Cece but not before throwing a nasty glare back at the pair.

“Don’t worry Kiddo, Daddy’s here to keep weird gross ladies away from you,” Jim reached into Cece’s car seat and tickled the girl’s cheeks. He was rewarded with a happy squeal from his daughter.

“May I give you a hug?”

Jim turned around at the sound of Pam’s voice behind him. She was holding the bag of chocolate chips to her face in only a half-hearted attempt to hide the proud grin on her face.

“You always have permission to hug me,” Jim said softly.

Pam stepped forward and sank into his arms for a brief embrace. She stepped back with her eyes shining at her husband. Pam turned to the side and reached into the freezer next to them. She pulled out two cartons of ice cream. One of Moose Tracks the other of Cookies ‘n Cream.

“All for you,” she said as she put them in their cart.

Jim grinned back and leaned forward to kiss her forehead. He turned to the freezer and pulled out a carton to hand to her. “And for you milady,” he said with pride.

“Oh my god Jim! No!” She tore the carton of Mint Chocolate Chip from his hands and flung it back in the freezer.

Unable to stop his laughter, Jim reached back into the freezer and got out a carton of Pam’s favorite Cookie Dough ice cream. When he turned back, Pam and Cece were already halfway down the aisle. Stumping down the aisle as fast as his leg could carry him, Jim quickly caught up with the pair.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

“Mmmhhmmm,” Pam muttered while trying to prevent the corners of her mouth from twitching upwards as she turned the cart into the breakfast aisle.

“Here look, I’ll prove it okay?” Jim set the carton of ice cream down next to the other two and started rubbing his hands together vigorously. “See? No cold fingers on your neck.”

She couldn’t resist any longer. Pam let out her own laugh. “I guess you’re out of the doghouse. What with that and also defending Cece from creepy women and all.”

Jim tossed an arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple as they finished their shopping trip.