Mom is starting not to rate too high when friends are near, I'm finding out with Benjamin. That's OK with me because it's cute to see my 6-year-old get soooo excited to see his pals.

This morning we were driving to drop him off at school when he saw one of his buddies about a half-block from school.

Benjamin asked me to roll down the back window. He was yelling and yelling his friend's name out the window until he got Jack's attention. Once Jack heard us, he was waving and smiling. He started running and got to our van, just as we pulled up to the school's dropoff area. Benjamin jumped out of his seat, grabbed his backpack and gave me and his siblings the quickest of kisses. He flew out the door, running with his friend to the playground.

How wonderful it must be to get that excited about seeing someone you haven't seen for 16 hours.