Finding Their Way

Chapter Eight

When Matt woke Danni was still sound asleep. There was a trace of light coming through the sheet. He kissed his wife's head and she ever so slightly turned up the corners of her mouth. 

"Good morning." she said

"Morning. How'd you sleep? How's your leg?"

"Not as good as I have but not bad. It's sore. How's your arm? How'd you sleep?"

"Same. It's sore. I think we should stretch them. You know like physical therapy."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Help me take this sling off and I'm going to stretch my arm as much as possible but I need you to just hold it up. If you can you should try to stretch your leg out. Not til it hurts bad just a little uncomfortable." He instructs and she nods and helps him out of his sling while holding his arm up, Matt stretches out his arm as much as he can. Danni bends and stretches her leg as much as she can. 

"Matt we need to talk..." Danni says

"I know. Where do we start? What happened to us? We use to be happy right?" they stop stretching and Danni helps Matt back into his sling.

"We did. Very much so. But one bad day turned into another and one argument turned into another and I think we just got tired and we felt hopeless because the other wouldn't listen. So because we wouldn't listen to each other and I mean really listen the fights, bad days and arguments never got resolved."

"I'm here, I'm listening. As long as you listen to me too. What is our underlying issue? Most of our arguments are about money, the kids, and how childish I can be. I don't mean to be childish, I just miss it when we use to mess around with each other, how we'd wrestle and have tickle fights in the bed. Everything was so simple before the kids. Don't get me wrong I love them and I'd do anything for them. We didn't get a chance to grow up together. There's so many things we never got to do. You know, go to parties, drink and have nothing to worry about but how we were gonna feel the next day, travel, see the world and that's just to start. I don't understand why we can't do them and do the parenting thing."

"I miss the wrestling and the tickle fights and all the other childish things we use to do and we can still do them. We just cant do them all the time. Parties and drinking are things that have to be put on the bottom of the list. Matt we are parents to two beautiful kids and they require a lot of our attention. I'm beyond tired, they are a handful and I need your help. You can be responsible and take action but that's only when you want to or when it best fits you. At least that's the way it feels. Sometimes you can see how tired I am and you step in and give me a break, other times you don't and can make me even more tired. Its like having a third child in those moments."

"I'm sorry that's the way you feel. You have your moments too. Moments where you can be unpredictable. You seem in a good mood or things are going good and I make a comment or do something childish and it sets you off. I admit sometimes I do things on purpose but other times I don't know what I did wrong or whats going on in your head. You don't tell me things, I get mixed signals.... I get lost... and when we argue you put words in my mouth that I didn't even say or mean."

"Matt, I'm sorry. I can see your point. I'll try to be better at communicating with you and stop putting words in your mouth. But you have to learn how to read me better too. Like leaving me at the store after our argument wasn't the best idea."

"Are you seriously still on that? It was a joke. I did that on purpose. I wanted you to see that our argument, which was about what was best to feed or give to our children, was stupid. Honey you will miss so much if you worry more about that then actually being with them. Do you realize that you spent twenty minutes to make a decision on bananas? No I am not exaggerating. A banana is a banana no matter how you look at it. There is no right way or wrong way to raise a child. Our job as their parents are to make sure they are happy, safe, healthy and decent human beings. Where our kids are at right now in their lives, they aren't going to remember what we feed them. What they are going to remember is mommy and daddy fighting and them being gone longer than they should."