Pomp and Circumstance

No caps or gowns. Instead, there were uniforms, badges, and guns. Lots of them. All morning long, Connor kept talking about "see Dada Policeman." After a grueling 6 months, Dada graduated from the police academy this afternoon. As luck would have it, it fell right at the time Connor normally takes his afternoon nap. Nanny and I thought ahead, thinking as long as we feed him before we leave, maybe - just maybe - he'll fall asleep during the 1/2 hour drive. Connor didn't quite see things our way. Instead, he chattered away almost all the way there. I think we were about 5 minutes away when he finally hit pause and started snoozing. I tried to get him out of his carseat as gently as I could, but he still stirred himself awake. When he saw the flood of policemen standing in front of the building, he became very wide-eyed. Even with the sea of blue uniforms, he still managed to pick out Dada.

We were lucky enough to grab some seats with Grandma and Grandpa in the front row. We had a pretty good view of all the recruits from our seats, but once seated, Connor couldn't quite figure out which one was Dada.

Four awards were handed out during the ceremony to the recruits who had the top scores in each category - fitness, academics, firearms, and driving. Dada received two out of the four! In my opinion, the two he received are the two that will potentially save his life and/or someone else's life - firearms and driving. Overall, he ranked third in his class. If you can't tell, I'm kind of proud of him.

Connor finally figured out where Dada was when he had to walk up front to accept his awards. When Dada turned to return to his seat, Connor was pretty determined that he was going to follow him. He didn't appreciate the fact that none of the adults he was sitting with allowed him to do so.

When it came time, the Chief of Police presented Dada with his badge, then he walked through a line of sargeants, lieutenants, etc, accepting their congratulations, then came to the back of the room where I was waiting to do the official "pinning" of the badge.

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The ceremony wasn't over yet. Once pinned, all the recruits had to return to their seats and repeat their oath. It was about this time that Connor decided he'd had enough. As I said, we were sitting in the front row, and he managed to get out of my arm's reach. He glanced over his shoulder and gave me a look like he was going to make a run for it. Hoping to not make too much of a scene, I had to get out of my chair to grab him. He didn't like that, and started throwing a tantrum. So I rushed him to the back of the room where he sat in time out for the remainder of the ceremony. Once it was over, he was fine again. It was just too long and boring for such a young, tired boy. He had a surge of happy energy once he saw his Dada. You can imagine what happened once he started downing a big piece of chocolate cake.

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We left Dada behind so we could go home and get ready for his party. We had to make a few pit stops along the way. Again, we hoped Connor would get some shut eye. But no, Connor stayed awake the entire time. Luckily, we finally got him to take a nap once we got home and started our party preparations.

For the party, we catered in some Big Papa's BBQ. Yummy! And surprise #1 for Dada . . . we had a cake made especially for him. Connor had a couple more surprises for Dada up his sleeve. When he woke up from his nap, he made his appearance at the party in a new t-shirt. We ate ourselves silly before opening some graduation gifts. Dada knew he'd be getting something from Connor and I, but he had no idea what. He opened my gift first - a dress shirt [yawn] with a gift certificate for his next tattoo hidden inside. Then he opened Connor's gift - a mall kiosk special . . . a dog tag with "Be safe Dada. I love you. Connor" engraved on one side, and a picture of the two of them on the other. We think he was pleased.


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