This past winter Donald noticed that Charlotte was increasingly speaking to him in French and asking him to read French books.  “I guess it’s time that I took a French class, isn’t it?” he said to me one night.  The next day he signed up for an evening French I course at the nearest community college.

The transition to Donald being gone two nights a week was a little bumpy, but not too bad overall.  I learned how to wrap the baby on my back so that I could tend to Charlotte’s night routine more easily.  And although Charlotte was a little bummed to miss out on valuable play-time with her father, I explained to her that her dad was learning French at “night school” so that he could play with her in French.

A few days ago, Charlotte came to me and asked me for a sword and a shield.  “A sword and a shield?” I repeated, bemused.

“Yes,” she answered pointedly.  “I need a sword and a shield.”

“What do you need a sword and a shield for?” I asked her.

She did not skip a beat.  “So that I can go to knight school with Daddy!  And I can be a knight like him!  And we can fight dragons together!”

(Shhhhhh, don’t tell the guest of honor, but upon her request Grandpa decided to make her a pair of wooden swords and shields for her birthday.)