Carpool Buddy.

Mornings are interesting in our house. A flurry of bowls of Cheerios, bananas, wardrobe changes, bag packing, hair brushing, calendar checking (for the preschooler in the family), and shoe finding. By the time 6:45 hits, the parents are on their way to caffienated wakefullness and the kids are ready for the morning routine of waiting for the garage door to rise so they can run onto the driveway and hopefully get misted by the sprinklers.

Rohan's my morning car pool buddy most of the year, except during wrestling season when Darrick does the drop offs for both kids and I do pick ups. Those morning drives to daycare or grandma's house are a sweet time for the two of us. Most mornings, we put the windows down and wave to cars next to us at red lights, talk about where we're headed, listen to music, and make faces at each other in the rearview mirror. Sometimes I try to engage him in something educational, like practicing counting our the alphabet song, to which he always interrupts and says, "NO, Mama!" over and over while I ignore him and carry on from the front seat. I will admit I sometimes worry that he isn't interested in these games, since Luca LOVED playing the counting, singing, alphabet, and 'what sound does this animal make?' games in the car at his age. But my worry went away the other day when he surprised me by singing most of the alphabet song by himself, unprompted by me.

This morning, Rohan snuck one of the 'goody bags' leftover from Luca's party off the counter (inside was candy someone picked up when the pinata broke) into the car with him. I looked back in the rearview mirror and saw him gnawing away at an orange lollipop, happy as could be. His facial expressions get the best of me and make me laugh, so I snapped some pictures when we were at red lights. My little carpool buddy! He makes mornings more bearable.

PS: Camera still getting repaired but man I CANNOT wait to get it back!