Grooming a Coffee Buddy

Today, Seth and I had the run of the house for a bit. Miska was out, and Wyatt was at school (and since it’s Friday, Wyatt was no doubt counting the seconds ’til he could dash out of his kindergarten classroom and to Mad Science Club where, as he likes to say, they “make lasers that kill people.”)

Seth and I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and see what’s up. It’s a gray, cloudy day, a little on the cool side. Great day for a walk. Seth filled me in on all his preschool gossip, and we took a different route to see this new house they are building in our hood. When we got back, we had a little chill and decided to make coffee. We ground up some beans (Mexican, shade grown), and sent the brew to steaming.

You might think that in the two coffee sentences above, I invoked the editorial “we,” that the coffee was really just for me. You would be mistaken.

Seth is fast becoming a coffee fiend. Seth, you will remember, is four.

He’s made friends with all the coffee crew at church, and frankly he no longer needs mom or dad to get his fix on Sunday. Any time we have coffee going at the house, he fully expects his share. And on days when no coffee is going, he’s as quick as anyone to suggest that perhaps a fresh pot is in order. Did I mention he’s four? I do hope his pediatrician is not reading…

Seth is even taking on the whole aesthetic of the thing. Today, he took issue with the fact that I had a handmade pottery mug while he only had a standard issue from Pier One. I guess we know what he’s getting for his birthday.

Wisdom would suggest that a preschooler would essentially like coffee because their version is more like a dessert, a little joe with mounds of sugar. (in fact, when I was a tyke, my Aunt Betty made me “milk coffee” – 1/3 coffee, 1/3 whole milk, 1/3 sugar – what’s not to love?). We never do coffee Aunt Betty-style, but it is definitely not the coffee of purists. Today, our creamer was Cinnamon Hazelnut. A few sips in, though, Seth said, “This is too sweet. I want more coffee.” My friend Nathan Elmore (previously referred to in this blog as “the coffee snob”) would have beamed.

I can’t tell you the joy this moment gave me, sitting at the table on an overcast day, a quiet house. Through our back windows, we see the quiet woods. And we drank coffee. Together. Just my son and me. There will be many more moments like this, I can promise you that.

A little tip: Crema.co Coffee Subscription: 80+ coffees from small batch roasters.

6 Replies to “Grooming a Coffee Buddy”

  1. My favorite part of this – that I know that you took the picture with your Mac (thanks to the fact that your CLEMSON shirt is reversed) … I have an app I need to show you, on that note.

  2. Drinking coffee with grown people is one of my favorite activities. I can’t imagine how cool it would be to share a cuppa with the awesomest little dude around. Maybe I should try and find a way to make that happen!

  3. Dad and I have some coffee memories of our own that I cherish to this day. My mom and sister HATED coffee so Dad just never made it. I’m pretty sure that I decided that it was cool to drink coffee after watching some kids movie that implied that coffee was a grown-up drink. That’s all it took. Dad had a coffee buddy of his own. Those are some sweet memories; every cup I drink is sweeter for them.

    On another note, in Photo Booth you can set your pictures to flip automatically under the edit menu –> Auto Flip New Photos (shift+command{apple}+F).

  4. Very cool… I’m right there with Seth. A little bit of coffee with creamer and sugar is just how I like it!

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