Spring Break. Okay Bye!

Spring Break is great. For my teacher wife and my son, it means a week off. For me, I get to grab a few extra minutes of sleep because I don’t have to do drop off.

So my kid has been all Mr. Happy. No rushing off, no well, getting dressed judging from the pictures. He’s got Mom all week, all to himself. And apparently that is enough.

I found this out yesterday morning, as I was leaving for work and he was getting settled at the table. Sometimes I just stare at him, especially when he's all fuzzy-headed and singing along to whatever tune he's got going under the hood. He looked at me, ready to tear into his breakfast of yogurt. *Oh precious yogurt, without it, I’m not sure my kid would survive. 

I started to help when he shooed me away, which is understandable, as I’ve learned not to question what makes the pendulum swing the way it does, and it was swinging Mom's way this week for sure.

Anyway, I gave him a kiss and said. “Okay, Daddy’s going to work.” Kind of expecting him to put up a fight. The Stay Daddy, stay, like he does sometimes when I leave on basketball nights. Maybe reach out to me as I left, begging, pleading, and tugging at the heartstrings--which might be saying things about my well-being but that's for another blog...

Begging was not what happened here. Nope, instead he just sort of glanced over my way, then back to his yogurt.

“Okay, yeah, bye.”

He kind of gave me a shrug, as though I were holding him up from something. I stood, then paused, giving him a second chance to come to his senses. He called for Mom.

It dawned on me that maybe, perhaps, possibly he wanted me to leave. So I shuffled on, past my wife, who kind of just smirked. I hit the door, wondering if an actual party was going to launch now that I’d left the house. Confetti, songs, dancing. Maybe a clown. So I just left, and went, to work, shoulders slumped and wondering where I’d gone wrong.

By the time I got home, he was happy to see me. And I didn't see signs of a party so maybe I'd imagined the whole thing. We played outside, and I pushed him on the swing-set and asked about his day. He shrugged and nodded that it was good. He had a good day and I was home so my day was good too. It's always good to be wanted...