My wife went and stayed overnight with #2 son tonight, leaving this AM, so I got to spend the day with #1 son. We did a whole bunch of stuff. We even started the day with watching Oshie score multiple shootout goals to win the game against Russia, followed by venison sausage and scrambled eggs. Granted, I had wanted to take him hunting and fishing today, but Pax made that not a possibility.

After hockey and whatnot, we started with the errands (which included stop at Starbucks for coffee grounds for compost, a tall vanilla blonde roast, and a tall hot chocolate...mine was gone before we got home, but he dropped his on the driveway when we got home. No tears, handled it like a champ). When we got home, we did some snow clean up, hung out, watched bball, and cleaned up a bit around the house while snacking, because we had a linner date (as in lunch and dinner, the meal eaten after 2 and before 5).  Nothing says Presidents' Valentine like Five Guys.

While we were out to eat at Five Guys, he kept watching other people. Eat a little, watch a lot. He noticed the family with the baby, watched the families near us, and kept asking me questions. My favorite was "Where do the cooker people keep going" as they would go in the back for more food to prepare for people. As parents, we're supposed to teach them not to stare at other people, but I kept telling myself to shut it. It was amazing to watch him people watch, be observant, and just flat out learn by those observations of his surroundings. Not to mention the observation is good for those paranoid people like myself who don't like to sit with our back to a door. It means he's learning to be aware of his surroundings in case of problems in public. He talked most of the way to the restaurant, and most of the way back. We had real conversations, to some extent. And those were my moments to make sure he grows up as he should, wise, aware, intelligent, conversant, and awesome. Saying that makes me feel better about not doing the "right" thing and telling him not to stare. I'll save that for church tomorrow.

The drive home saw us talking, real man-versations. He started by asking if my truck could get out of all the mess. That led  us to my truck only being rear wheel drive. We did the basic differences between front wheel, rear wheel, and four wheel drive (we left all wheel drive alone, because this was a man-versation, that AWD nonsense doesn't go on trucks, right?), why daddy's truck was different from Uncle Ryan's because of it, etc. We covered why I hadn't cleaned the snow out of my truck bed (due to weight and improved traction) and talked about how that made the truck drive differently. Always take the opportunities to educate, right?

When we got home, it was tidy up some more and get comfy. PJ's and bathrobes and blankets, oh my. Popcorn while watching TV, all that good stuff. What did we watch? We started with "The Sons of Katie Elder" (seriously, great theme song to this movie, then add in John Wayne, Dean Martin, the Sheriff from The Rifleman as a Sheriff, a gaggle of great character actors, and director Henry Hathaway [also did "North to Alaska" and "True Grit", as well as segments of "How the West Was Won"] and you have a quality Western). Then, on to some Andy Griffith followed by Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Yeah, its a lot of TV, but when he keeps talking and interacting about each thing we watched, it made it tough to stop. The other thing, he's daggone smart. As in the boy has embarrassed me on an intellectual level more than once...and he hasn't started pre-school. The one thing I will add here for my opinion moment: If you're going to watch TV, watch stuff you know has quality, not the larger portion of mess out there.

Oddly enough, putting him to bed was easy tonight. Funny moment leading up to it was seeing the dog laying next to the kitchen door, staring out, wondering where my wife and #2 son were. Then potty, teeth, devotions, hugs, kisses (I got a lot of those today, which is awesome), turn on the music, turn on the fan and heater, turn out the light, and done. He asked his one question, then went straight back to bed. Ask my wife how often that happens.

After putting him to bed, it was time to Blog about the day. How often do we miss the little things because we get too busy? I can say for sure that I will not remember today the way that he will. I may have given him a memory today that he will hold and treasure for the rest of his life. How many of us consider a day like that? Of course, I may have done nothing for his memories and just got him full of Five Guys, popcorn, and visual sensory overload. I guess the thing is, it feels like a carpe diemed day. That's what parents forget, to find their fulfillment in the time they spend with their kids. Its 9 PM, I still have a Sunday School lesson to write for tomorrow (Beatitudes, those who mourn), and I'm still pondering if I want to sleep in my bed with the dog tonight, or in the bottom bunk in Keenan's room with the dog tonight (note: our dog is never allowed into bedrooms or on furniture...unless Lauren's gone and I feel charitable). But the bottom line stands: It was a good day. I look forward to processing it in a Wordsworthian fashion (as in his definition of poetry - the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility) and seeing what I missed. Because I did, I missed something. I hope he didn't realize I did. I hope he thought today was all about him, because these days will be few enough in his lifetime. Whatever I missed, I hope I figure it out and learn from it, so tomorrow can be just as awesome.