Here’s a fun one from a little while back. It happened after my oldest had his tonsils out. My youngest and I were eating breakfast before he went to school. His brother was still asleep and his momma was off walking the dogs. Cue the scene…

The little guy took a long drink of chocolate milk, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and then put that same hand on my forearm. “I need some daddy-time!”

I smiled one of those big old goofy “I look like an idiot smiling this broadly but I can’t stop myself” smiles. And can you blame me? Can you think of anything you’d rather hear more from your child than “I need some daddy-time”?

I patted his hand. “We’ll have the whole day tomorrow.”

“No! Today!”

I shook my head. “Nope, tomorrow.”

He hung his head, “but you have to work tomorrow.”

“Nope. I’m taking the day off so we can play.”

He stirred his cereal with his finger. “But I have school.”

“Nope.”

“But you have school.”

I put down my spoonful of Honeynut Cheerios. “Tomorrow, it’s just you and me. No work, no school, just us. Momma and your brother are going to rest, and we’ll have the day together. Won’t that be fun?”

He nodded, very seriously. “But we’ll still check on them. Right? That would be polite.”

I sighed. “Yes, we can still check on them.”

“Good.” he said and went back to eating his cereal.

So much for being excited about Daddy-time!