Hug, Kiss, Comfort, and Joke

I clicked Osamu into his five-point harness child seat and gave him a kiss. 

"Have a great day, dude."

"Have a good day, papa!"

Kenzo does his own child seat seat belt clicking, but he still gets a kiss and a high-five.

"Have a good day, papa!"

Kisses all around.

Eri comes racing down the steps and gets in the car, which I have already started. I stand watch at the foot of the driveway and check for cars and college kids on bicycles racing by and give her the all-clear signal and she's off. Then I race back inside, fix up my coffee, dump the filter and grinds into the trash and since it's Monday take the trash out.

Eri takes the boys to the kindergarten bus stop. She'll be back in about twenty minutes. I gotta get ready for work and get my morning walk in.

This morning it was misty rain. Not really rain, mostly mist. I took my umbrella with me, but I didn't use it. It doesn't help. The moisture is in the air. It comes at you from all sides. I just wipe my head occasionally with my towel and keep a good pace. 

I put on long pants today. Long regular socks too. I've been doing shorts and summer short socks for so long. I love that feeling of being used to one thing and then experiencing a new thing, even though that new thing is something you know well and just haven't done for a while.

Tonight when I tucked the boys in Kenzo said, "Give me seven kisses." So after each kiss I counted. And after each kiss and count Kenzo wiped off my kiss. All seven. When I got done and he wiped off the last kiss he laughed like crazy and put his head down and sighed with great satisfaction. 

Then I went to the bottom bunk and tucked in Osamu and he says, "Papa I kiss you." So I bend down and he kisses my cheek and then he wipes it off and laughs like crazy and wriggles around in his blanket with delight. 

Oh how I wish this would last forever. And oh how I hope that these interactions and this nurturing will lead those guys to being affectionate people who hug, kiss, comfort, and joke with their friends and family for all their days.