Six weeks ago, I had an excuse. Today, not so much.

I’m both dreading and looking forward to the summer. Dreading because keeping Boredom at bay is a challenge for Caitlyn and thus for me. Looking forward to it because maybe, just maybe, I won’t feel like my days are jam-packed and over-scheduled. Right now, even the things that are supposed to be fun are feeling like over-pressuring responsibilities.

So, instead of packing lunch and getting ready for school, Caitlyn and I waxed the Monterey Jack cheese from last weekend. We joined the Thursday lunch crew for a delightful lunch at some place in Queen Anne (it’s really a shame I didn’t get the name since the food was good and the texture on the walls utterly fascinating, but the email thread just called it “the new Cajun place”). We walked back to downtown, took the train back to Columbia City, walked to the library and spent an hour reading books and racing the plastic dinosaurs. Well, that last one was mostly Caitlyn…

And then we came home and actually managed to more or less collaborate on dinner. I’d recently seen this post from Cooking with my Kid and figured (a) easy plus (b) noodles plus (c) cheese equals a dinner Caitlyn could get whole-heartedly involved in. She put the noodles in the pot, oversaw the melting butter, told me when I’d poured a cup of milk, helped grate cheese, stirred with various levels of enthusiasm, poured milk, and added cheese. She even managed to remember that in those lulls when you’re waiting for water to boil or sauce to thicken, you should avoid bear-walking unless you are also willing to go re-wash your hands before coming back into the kitchen.

She ate half her portion at dinner (probably due to a snack she’d had just when we came back from the library) and declared it the best dinner of her “entire life.” Given the recent explosion of extreme superlatives (lunch was also the best meal of her entire life and she wants to go to the Central Library because it’s her most favorite place in her entire life), I’m taking this announcement with just a little salt. But it still makes me smile.