The Ricker loves his mother.

We call her Nana. She's definitely the matriarch of the family. The Ricker talks to her daily -- it's part of his routine. A few weeks ago, I talked to Nana and then told the Ricker something that he hadn't heard yet. I think he was genuinely upset. As the Ricker ages, he looks and acts more and more like his mother. Sometimes it freaks me out. The Ricker always looks out for Nana. It's too bad he lives so far away, though.

Once Nana visited us for my high school graduation. I was pretty excited, and because I was speaking, I was able to reserve some seats so that my family wouldn't have to wait in line. Everything went well on the public-speaking front and on the hat-throwing front but not on the picture-taking front. At the end of the ceremony, when I found my family, my dad was missing. Nana needed to use the restroom, so the Ricker left the ceremony early and drove home to accommodate Nana (how dare she use a public restroom!). We had to call the Ricker and ask him to return to school for a picture. We waited for a good amount of time, since the Ricker now had to fight exiting traffic to get back to school. Luckily, someone we knew was still around with a camera, because when the Ricker went home he left the camera at home with Nana.

Every time I see this picture, I laugh and think about Nana's five-mile bathroom break, when there were a number of empty restrooms within a few hundred feet.