Happy Birthday to Thuy!

Hooray for Thuy's birthday. Today we celebrate the day she joined the world. In honor of this event, I thought I would add another story to our blog to brighten her day...

Me and the Garbage Man
My son's fascination with the garbage man is undoubtedly my own doing. Rather than watch TV on Thursday mornings, I usually position G's chair in front of our screen door so that we can watch the garbage man. It is a fun event in our house and can be extended to 15 or 20 minutes, if I am lucky. We sit together, eat breakfast, and watch the garbage man work his way up and down our street.

Given our weekly routine, it probably should not have surprised me that recently, when Giancarlo started wondering about people's names, he asked me one Thursday morning, "What is the garbage man's name?" To tell the truth, I have no idea. It has never occurred to me to ask. We know our mailman's name, dry cleaner's name, and even the newspaper delivery kid's name, but we don't know the name of the all-important garbage man.

"I'm not sure what the garbage man's name is, love. Maybe George," I replied.
"It's not George, Mama. That's not right. Go ask him," G said.
"What? Mama is not going to ask him."
"Go ask him!"

Ugh. And there I went. Trotting down the driveway, essentially in my pajamas, trying to appear nonchalant about my just-out-of-bed appearance.

"Hey there, good morning. How are you doing today? I was just wondering what your name is."
The garbage man looked at me like I was crazy. I later realized that he probably thought I wanted his name to complain about something to the garbage company.

I tried again. "My son is in complete awe of you and was wondering what your name is. He thinks your truck is the best."
A smile from the garbage man. "Chris. My name is Chris, actually Christopher."
Chris turned towards our door, waved, and yelled, "My name is Chris."

G was all smiles. The garbage man was talking to him. It was probably better than if Lightning McQueen himself drove into our driveway. As I returned to the screen door where G was beaming, I had to smile too. Our garbage man's name is Christopher.

Happy birthday, Thuy. We love you.

-Francesca