Sunday Morning Joy

I love Sunday mornings. Pure and simple. Having Lauren appear at the side of the bed to tentatively wake me up (or us, if Norm hasn't already gone surfing), thumb in her mouth and blankie in hand, waiting patiently to be invited under the covers to snuggle. Feeling the heft of the Sunday paper and unfurling it onto the table in the kitchen nook. The smell of freshly ground and brewed coffee with just the right amount of cinnamon added to the beans.
Of course, the days of spending an hour or two lazily reading the paper and sipping coffee ended almost 4 years ago. But hey, a good children's DVD can buy me at least 30-45 minutes of indulgence if that's what I want.

Today we reveled in another special component to our Sunday morning repertoire. My dad (Pop-Pop Mark) came to take Lauren to breakfast at her favorite bagel shop. He's an early riser and so is she, so they can leave the house just after 7:30 a.m. and make it home within an hour or so. He's done it a few times in the past and I've previously used the opportunity to go for a run. But I love hanging out with my dad and don't get to do it enough, so today I went with them, and plan to do so if possible on all future Sundays. I adore watching him interact with Lauren, and really appreciate the opportunity to be able to talk to him one on one about whatever is on either of our minds.

After breakfast, we returned to the house and Dad played with Lauren for a little while. How special to sit in our home office and hear her squeals of excitement while playing with him in the new playroom right next door. I snuck in with the camera just in time to see him "paying" her for the "meal" she had just cooked for him. "Twenty-five dollars, please!" she announced, but happily accepted the two single-dollar bills he pulled from his wallet.



Of course, we're still working on teaching her how to respect money (instead of using it for eyewear):



She then eagerly turned the camera on us (our new camera is actually quite heavy, so I'm amazed at how steady she can hold it):



Dad, we love you. I hope we can start looking forward to your Sunday morning visits more often. It makes an already joyful time even better.