This is the last "Friday Morning Before School at Dunkin Donuts" for this little guy. I started taking him on my day off from work in late 2019 going into 2020, which used to be Fridays in Clinical Learning. Kaylor was 4 years old. He had been at Village Montessori School since age 20 months. And at age 4 in primary class, this was a way to spend one unique morning a week with him before taking him to school. My friend, Erica Ailes, had always talked about her fond memories with her dad while growing up, when he would take her for donuts on Fridays before school. It was her time with him. Food brings people close together. It is a way of having tradition, bonding, and conversation.
Then the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic hit in March and came the lockdowns and restaurant closures and masking and things became drive-thru only. We had a major pause in our morning tradition, and a major pause in life. My work schedule was again off-the-chain. I resumed the weekly Breakfast at DD's tradition again with Kaylor in mid-2021 when I moved into Case Management and began working closer to home, which once I went from working 2 jobs/positions at 5 days/week to having a day off, became Wednedays. I no longer had Fridays off. So midweek Dunkin Donut Breakfast with Mom it became. Hump Day. And Kaylor went from being age 4 to age 5 and then age 6. He went from loving an iced donut (sometimes with sprinkles) and a bottle of whole milk to loving bagel bites....and still a bottle of cold whole milk. The bagel bites were something I introduced him to, which at first he didn't like at age 4 and 5, and then as he matured and grew older, his taste matured. And his appetite doubled.
Now at age almost-7 and unmasked after almost 2 years, he politely orders at the counter and currently loves the plain bagel bites filled with plain cream cheese, always asking for 2 orders (total of 4 bagel bites). He asks to go to DD's once a week and gets so excited, knowing he has to wake up earlier, be in a good mood, get himself together without prompting, and be out the door. It's been a great motivation. Sometimes we've been rushed, and he has to inhale it in the car, with me pulling the hot steaming bites open to cool off and carefully pass them back to him in the car seat literally as we pull into the school parking lot. Grinning like a clown and happy as a clam.
Today is our last official Friday with me dropping him off at carpool to Village Montessori School. It's his last Friday at this school. It's joyful and it's bittersweet.
We will find a different Friday breakfast place to go to for next year at his new school, Shallowford Falls Elementary! And our weekly Mommy/Son breakfast tradition will continue. ❤️ 🥯 🍩 🥞🍳 ☕
Adorable. I think about this... Intentional memories. How important. I want to do Sunday dinners. I think I want to a big Southern family like Madea at the dinner table.