Reporting live from the couch while the other three family members are still asleep.

This is the third day where I’ve been up before everyone else and I just freakin’ love it. I’m not going to say it’s like those early mornings in Harrogate, TN when I was up early in the morning drinking my lemon water, doing a 15-minute meditation, going for a walk around the neighborhood with a podcast in my ear, and having the time – on top of all that – to cook a healthy breakfast for myself.

Because, yeah. Life post-kids allows you to do ONE thing in the morning before the chaos starts. (I’ve got kids that wake early).

But, usually, Riyu wakes up another time around 4:30-5ish for a quick feed. And, to maximize my sleep, I usually fall back asleep after that feed. And then Ishu will come in and poke me in the nose or do some other annoying thing to get me up. But for the past few days, I’ve been waking up at that last feed and it’s been pretty lovely.

Anyway, happy Thursday. Work is D-O-N-E. Which is bittersweet. Sweet because, well, duh. Bitter because with contract work, if you’re not working, you’re not getting paid.

So there’s that.

But having the summer off feels worth it to me. Chicago is the most fun in the summer. There are already so many fun, free things that are happening all around us. Like, last week, there was roller skating at Lake Shore Park. They showed Barbie one day last week. Today, they’re showing ET at Lakeshore East. On any given day, there are 242324 things happening around us.

So that’s pretty fun.

Yesterday, Ankur and I got to go to Lula Cafe for breakfast. This is our new favorite place and, any time we have the option to go get brunch, this is our #1 choice. I just always leave feeling real happy about our meal.

I got the turkey sandwich, Ankur got the breakfast burrito, and we shared a piece of the ricotta raspberry sourdough French toast.

And then, we got home and I finished up this book (4/5 stars) and started this book before having to leave to get Ishu from school.

He has his tennis lessons on Wednesday and, yesterday, he got a private lesson since nobody else showed up. And, man, that kid is really just lovin’ it. It’s so fun to watch. It’s also bringing back so many memories of my own tennis lessons as a kid. They play this game where you volley at the net for a bit and then you have to run to the other side and the instructor tries to pelt you with balls and you have to dodge them and get back to the original side without being hit. And if you do get hit, you have to freeze and someone has to tag you to unfreeze you. And, for 30 years, I’ve forgotten that that game existed until I saw Ishu play and I was like, “OH YEAH. THIS WAS SO FUN FOR ME AND NOW IT’S SO FUN FOR YOU.”

WHAT IS THIS LIFE.

I always told myself that I’d never push an activity on my kid because I’d want them to have an interest in it before enrolling them in lesson after lesson after lesson. But it seems like this kid is gravitating toward a Budhraja-family interest without me having to do anything. He likes it so much.

Okay, that is all.

A bunch of morning ramblings.

I’m going to get up now and try to do TWO things before they wake up and make some protein pancakes.

Have a good one!