Playground playboy

I had dinner tonight with my former editing and design team. The rearrangement of the newsroom ripped apart my team, but luckily, the four of us have kept in touch with each other.

One member of our team got a job somewhere else. Two of us are still at the paper, and the fourth retired last week. And I'm so happy for her. She's 66 years old and has worked her entire life, so it's high time she has an opportunity to do the things she wants to do instead of the things she has to do.

So Jeff and Biscuit were on their own tonight.

Biscuit asked if they could go to a fast food restaurant that Jeff doesn't really like, and Jeff gave in.

"But Dad, you don't even like that place," Biscuit said. Which begs the question of why did Biscuit ask to go to a place he knows Jeff doesn't like. But despite that, Biscuit has a great dad, so he got to go where he wanted to go.

"Well," Jeff said. "It's a trade-off. Sometimes we go to places you like, and sometimes we go to places I like."

The funny thing is that Biscuit doesn't even like the food that much. He just likes the play area.

When I got home, Jeff told me about their evening.

"Your boy gets around in the restaurant play area," Jeff said.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"Well, first, he was playing with a little girl named Emma. She was there with her Dad. They played real well together, but she didn't get to stay very long. Then there was Olivia. Her Mom called her Livvy, and she and Biscuit played real well together. Livvy's Mom said she was not always that outgoing and that she's picky about who she will play with. But Biscuit was talking to all the parents, too, so that might have helped. Livvy and Biscuit raced on side-by-side slides and when her Mom said it was time to go, they hugged, and Livvy whispered something in Biscuit's ear."

Jeff continued, "Then there was Autumn. They played okay together, but Autumn was shy. She would play for a little while, then run back to her table to eat some of her food. Biscuit wasn't deterred. When Autumn went to eat her food, Biscuit would say, 'When you come back, we'll play some more.' We left before Autumn was done eating, but he said goodbye to Autumn and her Mom, and we headed home."

I love when Jeff and I each have alone time with Biscuit. Well, actually, I really love the time when we get to trade stories with each other about our alone time with Biscuit. That's what's really fun!