I'll have seconds, thirds even...more of this, please.

This morning we all piled into our Honda civic to grab a 7am breakfast at the Watertown Deluxe town diner.  Usually the acrobatics involve trying to get everyone dressed and ready--mama, daddy, a 3 year-old and 1 year-old--at what feels like the crack of dawn, pile in the car, and hoof it to our favorite breakfast spot before it gets crowded at 8am.  Since my sister is visiting, today I had an additional stunt: to cram myself between two mammoth Britax boulevard car seats in the back.  Not an easy feat, with one car seat facing forwards and one facing backwards in a relatively compact sedan. Somehow I contorted myself to fit, even though the seat area remaining was really just enough for three-quarters a normal-sized adult tush.  How long I could hold this position, I wasn’t so sure.

And we were off, bleary-eyed but with dreams of blueberry pancakes and linguica in our heads.  Two minutes into the ride, the dude admonished me, “seat belt, mama!” Shoot. I thought I was going to skate by for the 10 minute car-ride without it, but that’s my first-born, the responsible, sensible one, talking.  More contortions to set a good example.  Then the in-flight service started, with each child asking for their milk in straw cups and some cereal to munch on. I could tell, this was going to be an action-packed ride.

But what can I say? I thoroughly enjoyed the ride there and back, and the breakfast in between.  Always in the front, I've never gotten to enjoy the car ride from the kids’ perspective. It was fun to snuggle in the back with the kids. Little miss looked happily out the window, and from time to time told me about the birds she saw--her greatest love are little sparrows, and so understandably, her first sign was for bird and one of her first words was “chim” (“bird” in Vietnamese). The dude and I spotted lots of trucks parked, and he commented on all the construction sites we passed.  We all ate heartily and messily.  It was a perfect Saturday morning.  Completely ordinary, completely fun.  I’ll have seconds, thirds even...more of this, please.