"Daddy!"
"There's no need to yell."
"I'm hungry!"
"OK, what do you want for breakfast?"
"Cereal, with raisins."
"OK."
"No milk."
"I think it's better with the milk."
"But I don't want any milk."
"It's pretty dry without the milk."
"I. Don't. Want it."
"OK."

Ten minutes later...

"Daddy!"
"There's no need to yell."
...
...
"You were right.
...
It's dry without the milk."

Happy birthday, my sweet girl.

Riley's personality,  in a nutshell:

Jack enjoys an afternoon at Pump It Up, then the train ride home.

Jack breaks into the blueberry stash.

Fog at the lake. 

Jack and Riley are so earnest and industrious...each in their own ways.

Riley helps Eddie open his present.

Playing around the house.

Blowing out the candles at Eddie's 50th.  First at Sola, then at home. 

Jack does a little homework...

...then plays a little hide and seek.

Finley says hello.

Time with the kids.

Riley in the playroom.

Penny found a recipe for pea guacamole.

Fridays with Jack

  

One of the best things about my job is that I get Fridays off; I work my 40+ hours Monday through Thursday. It makes for occasional exhaustingly long days, but it also makes for 52 three-day weekends (plus the rare four-day weekend and short winter and summer breaks!). These Fridays have been among my favorite days over the last year. I get to take Jack to school. Since he's only doing half days, that gives me about three much appreciated hours to myself (time alone being a rare commodity these days). I've spent much of those three-hour chunks of time reading, writing, drinking coffee. But the best parts of those days are when I get to hang out with our little man.

We start with breakfast (occasionally eaten on the bus because someone couldn't get out of bed). Once out the door we decide whether to take the bus (any of three combinations of the 36, 151, or 22 and 80) or the Red Line.




After school we'll sometimes stop for lunch, usually at the Whole Foods up the street from school, sometimes Huey's, for some foosball, a hot dog, and a shared mud-thick chocolate shake. Of course, once the Boy Child has eaten, there must be a treat. Then the food/treat combo must be burned off at The Playlot (in this case, the Lazarus Playlot on Columbia Ave.).


All of this, of course, is peppered with the most profound conversations possible. And for these I am most grateful of all.

Looking up at the Willis Tower.

Finley, in the sun.

"I was trying to find a pen for you."

Riley works her way out the back door (with a little help from Finley).

Finley wants his ball back.

Bath time.