when she asks her daddy
I spoon their food from the pots on the stove to their plates and set them at the spots I know they prefer at the table. Blue plate for Zoey, red for Easton and Brady gets the same white IKEA plates my husband and I use. At nearly 15, Brady doesn’t care about his plate or where he sits but both Easton and Zoey want to be near him so I always put him in the middle somehow. I stick my head outside and yell dinner is done and they come running in and push their way to their spots. I have to remind them to wash their hands, which is usually met with groans and some sulking on their way to the sink. Why do children hate doing this so much? Once everyone is settled in their spots, someone says grace and we start eating.
“How was your day daddy?” she asks. I think she always asks him first because she likes his answer the best. “Good,” he replies. I see her start to fidget in her seat a little, sitting at the dinner table does not come easy to her but also she’s getting excited about what comes next. It is her favorite part of this particular interaction. “What was your favorite part?”, she almost yells out with excitement. His answer is almost always the same. “Right here at this table with you all” “Coming home to you.” “Leaving work and getting home” “This moment right now”. He keeps it simple. My husband is not a man of many words. You will almost never hear him start any thought with the words “I feel…” (but don’t worry I do that enough for the both of us) However, he does feel. He feels like he loves his family and he uses this daily habit around the table to let her, and the rest of us, know.
I sit across the table and watch her light up as soon as the words escape his lips. They say nothing else, just a shared moment of joy between the two of them and then she moves on to ask someone else at the table the same series of questions. In between passing out more napkins, refilling the water cups, and the seventeen reminders to stop rocking back in the chairs, we hear about the playground football game, the perfect math facts score, the new skateboard trick, the coffee meeting. I love hearing about all of their days, but I think it is my favorite too, when she asks her daddy.
