Friday Robert had a PA Day from school.

With the 2 youngest in daycare, and my husband working, it was a chance for us to spend some one on one time together. We had originally planned to meet up with some of his school friends, but I had a cold and was feeling pretty rough.

As I loaded the boys up in the van, triple checking that I wasn’t forgetting anything for daycare, Robert said to me “Restaurant, Maman!”

For most parents, a 5 year old asking to go out to eat is probably not an unusual request. In fact, your 5 year old likely makes 100 requests a day and it might wear you out to hear him tell you that he wants something and doesn’t want another. You might roll your eyes because he’s insisting that he wear the same shirt four days in a row, or she tells you she will only eat chicken fingers for dinner.

For me, hearing Robert pipe up and state that he wanted to go to a restaurant with me was a dream.

This is a boy who insists on having yogurt and toast for breakfast, but will eat waffles and fruit if that’s placed in front of him. And he won’t complain about it. If he asks for chocolate milk, and you give him a glass of almond milk, he will happily drink that.

He wears whatever I pick out for him, and even when we tell him to pick his outfit for the day, he’ll often just point to me and tell me to do it. Not because he’s lazy, but because he just doesn’t care.

You can understand why, on Friday, when he sweetly said “Restaurant, Maman!”, I obliged. We went out for pancakes with syrup and chocolate milk at a local restaurant. We played with playdoh, coloured some pictures, and enjoyed each other’s company.

Some milestones reached are more subtle than learning to walk or talk. There is little or no anticipation leading up to it. These milestones quietly creep up on us, and we don’t realize the profound impact of it until it happens.

Friday was one of those quiet milestone days. And it was perfect.