Lunch with a friend

Today I had a lunch date with my future flower girl Esme Ashcroft, and her Nanny and my friend Sarah Bates. I made kid friendly Italian Quesadillas, and Esme enjoyed a sippy cup full of organic chocolate soy milk. When I was a kid, it would have been microwaved tortillas with melted Velveeta and a glass of Nestle Quick. My how times have changed. After lunch in front of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", Esme wandered the apartment searching for Dexter the Cat while Cassie the Dog tagged along. As I witnessed my nephew's birth last fall, plan my wedding for this summer and soon to move up a notch on my "30s belt", children are becoming more and more a part of my life. Perspectives have shifted. My parents are now my closest friends, cops 'n robbers is not as fun as it used to be, and the idea of going to a nightclub just makes me tired.

Is this how my parents felt before they got married? Tired, slower, wiser and quieter. That's what I am. That is, until I am with a kid... During my lunch date with Esme, we stood together on the window sill, we went and teased Dexter in the closet, we watched cartoons, drank chocolate milk, and laughed about anything and nothing. I felt like a kid. When I was home in Connecticut visiting my nephew James, I held him and stared at him for hours without getting bored or tired. And I talked his ear off.

Moving forward towards parenthood, it seems, is a chance to raise children in your image, with your values, appreciating life, and blah blah blah. What it really is, is a chance to become young again so that your children are not only your children, but your closest friends. Man, it's going to be fun! I'm going to name my son Thor! (Just kidding, baby...)

Peace,
Charlie