March 27, 2004 - Saturday
The boys' mother was away for a business conference for much of the day today so I took the boys some 45 miles for a donut. Of course, the donut was really just the turnaround point and the bigger attraction was riding the subway train into the big city. We'd taken the boys to dinner near a subway station this past Tuesday (I had to do a little work at the old house and the boys visited the archives) and that has had Harry pushing for a subway ride every since (really oppressively so on Wednesday, but I convinced him that wasn't the best way to win favors and he wasn't so bad after that). So, this morning we drove 35 miles to get on a subway, stopping at grandpas on the way because he thought it would be fun to go, too, then riding another 15-20 minutes to a downtown donut shop. We had to go that far because the subway comes up from underground right before that for a brief period and crosses a river and that was something clearly not to be missed, especially since it's the river where Mr. and Mrs. Mallard lived. In a way, I suppose the day couldn't have been more mundane. Yet, the adventure couldn't have been more exciting either. But, that kind of sums up a lot of parenting I suppose.

In an interesting side note to the subway ride, toward the end of our return trip an older woman inquired about Jeremy, asking his name and so forth.
"This is Jeremy and this is Harry," I said, pointing to them respectively not realizing that she was particularly struck by our number 2 boy.
"He's so cute," she started, then interrupted herself and politely nodding toward Harry, "he's cute, too." Then she went on, "but he's really cute, with the..." motioning to her cheeks through the din of the subway train in reference to Jeremy's toddler jowls and smiling.

Harry has been called cute all his life. He was born cute and was a cherubic toddler. When the two are side by side, we commonly get "they're both cute" as if they are a set. But, this is the first time I can remember Jeremy winning straight out on cute from a stranger.


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