Little Moments with Jacobi

Jen went away this last weekend for a couple of days of relaxation. A rough session of school brought on a need for some R&R for her, but it gave me the gift of a couple days with my son to do whatever we wanted. Here's some things we shared:

Breakfast
Sunday morning I got the crazy idea to go on a bike ride around Lake Padden with Jacobi. No breakfast, no coffee, I just loaded up the car and went. I had a less than enjoyable time as I had absolutely no energy. Jacobi may have had an even worse time. "Daddy, the cart (the bike trailer he rode in) hurts my head. This is not like the jogger."

So we went home and I made us a breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs. As we sat and ate, we talked about things we both liked. Peanut butter and blackberry syrup. Goofy, from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We also talked about how he wasn't going to ride around Lake Padden in the bike trailer again.

Blackberry Picking
Jacobi's favorite thing to do. It's getting late in the blackberry season, but we were able to find some. We walked along the trail behind our house, searching out blackberries and saving what we found in a bag. That bag was empty by the time we got home.

Quiet Time
Towards the end of his nap, Jacobi asked me if he could get up. I was laying in bed (I'd just woken up from a nap), and I told him I was going to read for a little bit. So we sat in bed, in the quiet of the afternoon while I read on my tablet and he played a little game on my phone. The silence is what I'll remember the best. It's one of those little moments where we were on exactly the same page.

Cleaning Up
I didn't want Jen to come home to a mess, so I spent the hour after nap cleaning things up. Jacobi played quietly with his Legos while I did dishes and took out the trash. Then out of nowhere, Jacobi was pushing the dust mop around the kitchen. "What are you doing, bug?" I asked. He continued to dust mop and replied, "I'm helping." The fact that he realized what I was doing was pretty awesome, but the fact the he gave up on his Legos and jumped right in, picking a job he wasn't asked to do (or even one I was doing) was amazing.

The Walk
For dinner, we had to go to the store to pick something up, so Jacobi and I walked there. It was a fairly ordinary walk, with a few exceptions:
1. We ran halfway there, at Jacobi's insistence.
2. At the park across from the store, I was told I had to walk in the grass because "the monster" would get me on the sidewalk.
3. Jacobi stopped me to point out flowers in someone's garden, flowers I'd seen before but somehow never noticed.

Kingdom Hearts
A Bro Weekend wouldn't be complete if we didn't play some video games. Before bedtime, we hunkered down in our tent and played an hour of Kingdom Hearts. Really, I played and Jacobi watched because the gameplay is a little over his head. It's funny, he's never really seen the game, but he knows all the characters because we decorate his room with them.

"What's happening to Sora?" Jacobi asks during the opening scene, the Dive into the Heart.
"He's going inside his heart," I told him.
"His heart?" Jacobi asked. "Why?"
I laughed. "Because he has to fight the darkness."
"He's darkness in his heart?"
"No, not darkness," I explained. "Light. No matter how dark things might seem, there's always light in your heart."
"There's light in my heart," Jacobi said, and this time, it seemed like he wasn't asking a question. 

It was a cheeseball moment, but it was a cute moment. The kid might have a future as a Kingdom Hearts geek like his dad.

Sleep
Last night, Jacobi slept in my bed. It was a comfort to have him there, a comfort I haven't felt since he was an infant. Also, he told me this morning that I snored all night long. Thanks, kid.