This morning was Breakfast with Dad day at SK’s school. They opened the kitchen a little early and students could bring their dads (or any other man important to their lives) and have bagels or oatmeal together before school started.

SK’s dad really did not want to go (though SK doesn’t know that). Not only is elementary school cafeteria oatmeal not high on his list of favorite breakfast foods, but it also meant his work day couldn’t start until 9:00. But he went because it was important to SK and being a Dad is the thing he does best in the world.

This is one of my favorite pictures of them, taken in Nova Scotia in August of 2003, when SK was three months shy of turning three. They were having quite a conversation, even though SK’s speech delay left him very shy of understandable. Three months later he started the school’s special needs preschool and five months after that he said his first clear words. He pointed to the shelf of VHS tapes and said, “I want to watch that one”. My brain was so skilled at automatically translating it took me a few seconds to realize he’d actually said the words. (He’d been speaking in complete sentences for a long time. He didn’t open his mouth, though. Said everything with his lips pressed together. Try that. TK also had a speech delay while speaking in complete sentences, but everything he said was missing the consonants. Try that, too. Fun times. But thanks to the greatest special needs preschool team on the planet, they were both age-typical by kindergarten.)

Blah blah blah. Anyway.

I think the most groan-worthy school event I’ve suffered through was a class play of TK’s. The microphones were inadequate, so nobody could hear the children. It was like watching mimes. And SK was in that too old for the stroller, too young to be loose phase, so it was a tough hour.

How about you?