What with it being Father’s Day, I guess I couldn’t complain too much when I had to fulfill my fatherly duty of taking possession of a cranky toddler at 5:45 a.m. Besides, typing one-handed, I made more progress on Chapter 5 of my “Smith” rewrite in the next 15 minutes than I had in the previous 45 minutes of having both hands free. I don’t get it, but I’ll take it.

The family took me out for Tex-Mex for lunch. Both boys were preternatually calm, even though I was the one having the margarita, and it allowed my wife and me to have an actual adult conversation. We talked through several aspects of Smith’s life that I’d been struggling to get across in this chapter. Her questions forced me to think and clarify and summarize — they did me a lot of good that I bet will pay off when I sit down to write in the morning. The store-bought goodies I received were nifty, but that conversation was this year’s best Father’s Day present.