The Morning Ritual
We began to wonder why Christian was nowhere to be found every morning. We live in a two story house with a lot of places for a five year old to disappear. Our chunk of property also lends itself to getting lost, plus he knows how to swim and generally stays away from the pool, the pond, and the road, so we were never really worried. On top of all that, he always showed up between 8:00 and 8:30AM smelling like syrup.
It turns out, Christian has started his own ritual. You see, every morning near 6AM my father walks across the driveway to pick up his morning paper out in the road. (Yes he still reads a newspaper...every. single. day.) Somehow, Christian's "PopPop" meter is alerted to my dad walking under his bedroom window and he knows that his best buddy is up and moving.
So, Christian gets out of bed. He changes out of his jammies and into whatever clothes he can find (sans underwear) and with his hair still bent sideways from sleeping, he quietly sneaks out of our back door and over to my parents house. Their backdoor is always left open, so he walks right in to find his Pop-Pop reading his newspaper. At which point...the ritual begins.
The two of them typically enjoy a bowl of cereal (with sugar) and here's the important part...whatever else Christian wants. Since I am typically at work every morning by this time, it takes a weekend for me to catch this routine in action. So, I snuck over a little late the other day and grabbed this photo:
I was too late for the breakfast, but I did capture the post-breakfast activities of book reading, newspaper review and drawing.
This kid lives a rough life!
Yes, a life we would all choose if we had the option. Hats off to grandparents who build memories.
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
