At the risk of sounding too corny or repetitive, my favorite weekday hour (up until yesterday) was the hour when I left work to go pick up Mikey from school and brought him home to get him ready for his home teacher.

It just felt like such a happy, free hour. Mikey would walk out of school with one of his teachers and he'd be so happy to see me...and that immediately brought a smile to my face regardless of how my day had been going previously.

Most days we would drive right home and he'd have his usual snack/cartoon break until his home teacher arrived. But, some days, we'd stop for a chocolate ice from Ralph's on the way home. I'd put Mikey in his booster seat and say, "Do you want to get a chocolate ice?" He'd immediately look at me and say, "Yesh!"

But yesterday was the last day of school. And now the pressure is on to put MIkey on a school bus for the next school session. I've been fighting it, but I'm probably going to lose this one.

I'm sure Mikey will be fine on the bus. But I doubt the school bus driver will stop for Ralph's on the way home.