The boy & his dad

We have a boy that positively adores his dad.

Every afternoon, at exactly 4:30, Colter grabs his jacket and runs out the door. He runs to the end of the driveway, and there he waits for his dad to arrive home from work. Sometimes he takes his sister Marissa and sometimes he takes the dog, but mostly he goes alone. Generally he only has to wait 10 - 15 minutes for Wayne to turn onto our road, but sometimes he has a longer wait. Like yesterday. For some reason Wayne was delayed for a good 35 minutes. But Colter, ever faithful companion to his dad, patiently continued waiting at the end of the driveway, in the very cold weather, until Wayne finally made his way home.

I love to stand in the kitchen window and watch Colter as he waits. I see him:

-pacing back and forth,
-on the pavement...on the gravel,
-kicking rocks onto the road,
-throwing rocks across the road to the field,
-prying chunks of tar out of the pavement,
-climbing the branches of the cottonwood tree,
-wiggling the mailbox back and forth,
-collecting fallen acorns,
-teasing the neighbor's two beagle dogs that are tied up and barking at him,
-and darting in and out of the trees at the end of our property.

I always know when Colter has finally spotted his dad coming down the road because he will rush to the left side of the driveway and begin to jab his thumb back and forth into the air like a little hitchhiker. Wayne always stops with the front tires barely turned into our driveway and Colter happily jumps into the passenger side of the pick-up. On some days the two of them might take a little drive down the road or go for a quick spin around the loop, and sometimes they just drive the 40 feet to the garage where they park the pick-up and just sit and talk before coming into the house. After awhile the two of them walk into the house, sometimes hand-in-hand, with Colter always lugging Wayne's lunch box next to him, with a look of pure satisfaction on his face.

Ahhh, bliss for a little boy who totally adores his dad.

A boy and his dad. Ya just gotta love it.