Breakfast with Eric

I prefer selfies like this one where Eric is in most of the picture and only part of my face is showing. :) I'm on call tonight, so since I was off this morning, I took that opportunity to take my favorite 7-year-old to breakfast. I would have taken Natalie, but she did not want to get dressed. She was awake, of course, but she was on her Kindle and very comfortable in her bed.

I decided to go to the Magnolia Pancake Haus. Eric would have been fine with IHOP, but I like the coffee at the Magnolia Pancake Haus. I don't really drink coffee, but I love their coffee (with a lot of cream and sugar). He had the kids' pancake (with three small buttermilk pancakes) with sausage. I had the Bananas Foster French Toast with their Corned Beef Hash--yum!

Eric finished his food pretty quickly. His plate was already clean and I had not even eaten half of my french toast yet. Granted, I usually only finish half of my french toast when I go there (and save the rest for another yummy breakfast on another day), but he even finished his cup of chocolate milk AND his orange slice. He wanted me to take this picture to include a view of his empty plate next to my almost full plate. He also said that he was using the orange slice "for a smile". Eric really does make me smile. He is such a ray of sunshine for everyone in the family.

They gave him a "placemat" to keep him busy, along with some crayons. The printed front included an activity where they told you to circle the food items that you DON'T eat for breakfast. Well, pizza was one of the food items. I think everyone in my family has had pizza for breakfast at one time or another, so that was a confusing activity for Eric. I told him to go ahead and circle the items that he WOULD eat for breakfast. He included the pizza, of course!

He then did the maze on the front then proceeded to turn the placemat over to draw a picture on the back. He started out with some tall buildings. The "bad guy" was on top of the third building from the left (notice that he labeled him "bad guy" on the picture). Eric with his "ninja" skills started out on top of the left-hand most building and then flipped over in the air until he reached the building where the "bad guy" was so he could fight him. He included three of his school friends on the picture and labeled them so I would know who was who. Marques is suspended in the air in between the two middle buildings and for some reason has some lines extending to and from his stick-figure body. Josh looks like he's climbing on the outside of the third building from the left, and Hayden looks like he is helping Eric fight the "bad guy" from the right-hand most building. Eric has such an active imagination that's really fun to see sometimes.

It's too bad that Natalie didn't come with us, but in the end, it was nice to spend a little time with my youngest child who is growing up way too fast.