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“Come on, Buddy!...Where’s your left shoe, Henry?” An amused smile playing around his lips, Tom looked at his son standing before him with his woolen hat askew, his brown curls tousled as always, and only one shoe covering his little feet.
Henry returned his gaze with the most innocent expression and simply shrugged his shoulders, knowing that his Daddy would forgive him anything if only he kept that saintlike expression on his darling face.
“Oh you,” his father sighed with a smile and tickled him briefly before padding into the living room to find the missing object. Only too happy to have a few more moments at home, Henry played with Molly whose newest addiction was fetching all kinds of things that the little boy threw for her.
“Alright, here it is. Let’s get ready and leave so Mummy can have some well-deserved quiet time,” Tom chuckled and helped Henry with his shoe before he picked him up and left the house with his son.
“But what if Maddie starts crying again? She won’t have quiet time then,” Henry remarked as he climbed into the car.
“Well, at least she’ll have some quiet time from us,” his father winked in reply, helped him fasten his seatbelt and then took his own seat behind the wheel.
It was a bright and sunny winter day and the freshly fallen snow covered the roads and pavements, the houses and trees. Henry gazed at the white world outside, his nose pressed against the window and his breath clouding his vision.
“Daddy?”
“Yes, love?”
“When we go to the shops...can I help you get stuff? I don’t want to sit in the shopping cart, that’s boring!”
“Of course you can. You just have to promise to stay by my side, alright? I don’t want you to get lost.”
“Okay!”
The car park in front of Waitrose was still rather empty and Tom easily found a spot close to the entrance. Helping Henry out, he gave his little one the shopping list to look after before they got a shopping cart and walked into the shop.
It was only then when Henry unfolded the piece of paper that Tom saw the images beside every word depicting exactly what they needed. Of course Olivia had been thoughtful enough to make a shopping list even Henry could read and the little boy beamed at this discovery.
“Daddy, we need tomatoes and a cucumber...or two cucumbers. There are two pictures, does that mean we need two?” He looked up at Tom with his big, brown eyes, his hat now threatening to fall off and Tom shoved it in his pocket before he looked at the list.
“That’s right, love. Two cucumbers. Well observed.”
Henry beamed at his father’s praise and walked over to the vegetables section.
Piece by piece, they collected everything they needed until they, eventually, arrived in the aisle with the sweets and biscuits. Henry’s eyes grew instantly larger and almost on tiptoes he walked past the shelves, mumbling to himself what exactly he’d like to eat if only he were allowed.
Tom watched him for a moment, rather proud that his son hadn’t yet grabbed everything and begged for him to buy it. He liked to believe that Henry knew he’d be allowed a treat when he deserved it and given that he had been such a big help during their shopping trip, it was about time he received something as a thank you.
“Why don’t you choose something for yourself and maybe something for Mummy, too?,” Tom smiled and followed him down the aisle. Henry looked at him with a big smile on his face and immediately raced towards the little bags of chocolate buttons which he knew his Mummy loved so much.
Gingerly, he picked one up before he saw a big sign with a number on it.
“Daddy, what does that say?”
“It says you can get three packets for £1.50. So why don’t you pick three for Mummy? And then you can pick something for yourself too. From any shelf you like.”
Again, Henry nodded and selected three packets of chocolate buttons for his mother before turning around. There were so many sweets, so many colours and choices that he was rather overwhelmed all of a sudden and didn’t quite know what to get.
A little helpless, he turned, hence, to Tom. “Daddy, I don’t know what to get. Can you help me?”
“Of course. Come here, we’ll look together.” Swiftly, he picked him up and together they walked along the shelves.
“Do you want chocolate, biscuits, or crisps?”
“Hm...chocolate.”
“Okay...let’s have a look...there are Smarties...and there’s Cadbury....or maybe you want Maltesers. Oh look, there’s Kinder chocolate. You liked that one last time, didn’t you?”
Henry nodded instantly and carefully grabbed a packet off the shelf before holding it tightly against his chest, rather proud at having made such a difficult decision even if his Daddy had helped somewhat.
“There we go, that’s sorted,” Tom chuckled and breathed a kiss onto his son’s hair.
“Do we have everything from our shopping list now?” With Henry’s help, he unfolded the piece of paper once more and one by one they checked each item. The little boy still safely in his arms, he then proceeded to the checkouts and Henry watched the young man as he swiped each item with a beep.
“Daddy, do you think I could beep one item?,” Henry whispered rather loudly intp his father’s ear and Tom looked at the cashier who had heard it and now nodded with a smile.
“I believe you can, love.” He watched Henry listen to the cashier’s instructions before the little boy grabbed the bags of chocolate buttons and swiped them over the glass, laughing at the beep each time he had succeeded.
“Mummy will never believe what I did,” he laughed as they left the shop together and Tom laughed along with him.
***
“Mummy! Mummy, you won’t believe what happened!”
Almost stumbling over his own shoes, Henry raced into the house where Olivia was just walking downstairs with a still sleepy Madeleine in her arms.
“What happened, love?,” she smiled and ruffled through her son’s longer hair.
Taking a deep breath, Henry looked at her and said, “I was allowed to beep your buttons.”
Instantly, Olivia’s eyebrows shot up and she looked at Tom for clarification. He, however, was almost falling over with laughter now while little Henry was rather mystified at what could have caused such a reaction from his parents. Did his mother not realise what amazing news this was?
“Excuse me, love, what did you do exactly?,” she asked again.
“Well, there was the cashier and he always beeps all our things and I chose chocolate buttons for you and I was allowed to beep them myself before Daddy put them in the cart again,” Henry explained, underlining everything he said with movements of his hands.
Olivia now finally understood and she looked at him, surprised. “No you did not! Really? How great! Was it fun?”
“Yes it was. And the cashier man said I did a very good job,” the little boy grinned rather proudly now while his father had finally recovered from his laughing fit.
While their son now paraded into the kitchen, he stepped closer to his wife and whispered, “I wouldn’t say no to beeping your buttons tonight, love.”
Before Olivia was able to smack him for his comment, though, he had escaped into the kitchen with their groceries.