Last week we were shopping for a nice wool coat for Husband to look spiffy and warm in.  After we found it, he let me wander off to see if there was something in the women’s dept. that struck my fancy.  Nothing did, but having the freedom to wander alone in a store while he wrangled the kids for a few minutes was luxurious indeed.

When I eventually meandered back to him, he was standing in front of the jewelry counter and asked my opinion of a very sparkly, very fancy necklace.  I looked at it, and at him, and he had this happy, happy expression on his face and I could tell he was thinking of me and our anniversary that week. 

“It’s lovely,” I told him,  “but it’s just too much, and where would I wear it?” as I looked at the stroller full of my loud day and night jobs.

“That doesn’t matter.  Do you like it?” he pressed, and I repeated myself and then he repeated himself.

“At least try it on,” he insisted.

So the nice lady behind the counter came over and gave it to him, and he put it on me.  Sidenote, has a man ever put a necklace on for you?  Surprisingly sweet.

I looked in the mirror and saw me - the 30 year old mother of two, with the plain,  chunky sweater uniform I have to don for the frozen wasteland we live in and circles under my eyes that prove I have a baby - and this necklace that looked like it belonged on someone with a like much more glamorous than little old me.  It sparked though, the likes of which I’ve only seen in the brief moments my wedding ring isn’t covered in baby food and hand lotion.

And I looked at him, smiling broadly at me.  “It’s too much for me,” I repeated.  He shook his head again.

I looked back at myself, and had a flash of myself and what we’d been through in the last 5 years.  For the first time I saw myself as His Wife.  Married.  Mother of his kids.  That doesn’t sink in, no matter how long its been.

Suddenly the necklace just looked like the kind of the a married lady of 5 years wears.   

My smile matched his.  5 years looks good on us.