November 27

I've probably mentioned this before but sometimes I repeat myself so it's all good.

Brady is a big Routine Guy. He's the only 12-year old I know who has a written schedule that he a) devised completely on his own and b) actually follows on a daily basis. 

One of his lesser "routines" involves beating me to the mailbox every day after school. (The boxes on our street are clustered, so ours is actually located a few houses away.) So each day when we get home, I get out of the car and make my way down the driveway to the sidewalk, where he very predictably streaks past me to get there first. I pretend I'm going to knock him over and he laughs like a maniac. Then he hands me the mail and goofy-walks back to the house.

It's one of our Things. And I am grateful for every one of those run-of-the-mill, inconsequential Things.