Due to economic reasons, my son and I don’t get to eat lunch out very often, so perhaps this is why I view our lunches together as special.

If I am taking him to get his haircut, right afterwards I take my happy child with a lollipop in his mouth and a prize in his hand to Panera Bread.  He always gets the mac and cheese, I get some sort of soup or salad with a half of sandwich.

If it is nice out, we love to sit outside under their umbrellas, watching the fountains, birds, or even people.  As he gets older, it seems like our lunches get  better as he gets more verbal and I can have a real conversation with my four-year-old.

We sit under the umbrella and eat and talk.  Afterwards we will walk around the area a little.  A couple of months ago I felt pretty good and I walked with him to overlook a man-made pond. What I at first thought were big fish were actually turtles!

“Look, Tyler, the turtles are coming towards us to say hello!”  And they were.

This weekend I ate with my son again at “our spot”.  It was one of those gorgeous last sunny, warm days in October.  After our lunch I took Tyler away from the eating area to feed the birds.  We were right next to a water fountain, one of those that shoots out one “geyser” at a time until it shoots at full force, and then turns off completely to start all over again.

“What happened to the water fountain?”  “It will come on again, baby, it’s a Surprise Water fountain.”

Tyler laughed as they started to come back on.  “It’s giggling water!”, he shouted.

When the fountain turned off again he said, “Come on water fountains, giggle!”

Soon after we went home to tell Daddy about our day.  Here’s to more wonderful lunches with my treasured son.