Breakfasts with My Boys

For months, I’ve intended “at some point” to spend one-on-one time with each of my boys on a regular basis. The thought was that, once a month, I could devote an hour or two to some simple activity or outing where I get to hang out with each kid as an individual. When I recently went with Eddie to Donuts with Dad Day at his school, I decided that should count as the first such outing. Thus, about a week later, I took Peter out in the morning. Peter didn’t like my initial suggestion of grabbing a bagel. He wanted McDonald’s. So, that’s what we did. For fun, we went to a McDonald’s that’s slightly more out of the way than others. Once in a long while, as a family, we’ll go out for a McDonald’s breakfast. When we do, the kids usually want pancakes and chocolate milk. This time around, I asked Peter if he’d like a breakfast that came with pancakes, hash browns, and scrambled eggs. He said he would, so I ordered him the “Big Breakfast with Hot Cakes.” It also came with sausage and a biscuit. I didn’t know if he’d care so much about those, but he went to town. Peter is a boy who sometimes doesn’t eat in the mornings because he just doesn’t feel like it. Maybe he’s just not a fan of the stuff we have at home, because apparently he can fit a decent amount of food in that tummy of his. Peter ate all three pancakes, the entire sausage patty, the entire thing of hash browns, most of the eggs, and a good chunk of the biscuit. It was a lot of fun to hang out with him, even if McDonald’s was incredibly slow about getting our food. At least it extended our outing. I took a low-quality picture on my cheapo cell phone. Here it is:

Within a few days, I also went out with Creegan. I had to take back some library books in the morning and Creegan was being a little terror at home. My initial plan to take Creegan was just to get him out of the house for Melanie’s sake, but then I figured I might as well turn it into an official outing. And so, I drove to the library, dropped off some books, then headed to a Circle K, where Beegy and I each got a fountain drink. (His was much smaller than mine, don’t worry.) We then headed to Panera. Creegan was an easy sell on that one. He likes the chocolate chip “muffies,” which are basically cookie-shaped tops of muffins. We went through the drive-thru for that. When I first proposed going through the drive-thru, Beegy was not a fan. He wanted to go inside. I protested, and he quickly agreed to the drive-thru, although he first attempted a compromise that involved going through the drive-thru and then going inside as well. I squashed that idea.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of my outing with Beegy, but here’s a recent photo of him showing off in his new post-potty-training undies: