One of those milestone moments in life took place Monday night when the boys headed off to play Commander at our local game store. Nothing unusual in attending a game store event at first glance. But from the times that Christian and I played our very first two-headed giant pre-release game for Oath of the Gatewatch, I had always been at the store when the boys played. Until last night.

It played out much as it should. Christian connected with a friend over Discord at some point earlier in the day. This led to them deciding to go play Commander with Noah in tow. They shared their plans with me and asked if I could go with them. Sadly, there was some work stuff that I could not put off (Being responsible is not fun, I can assure you if you had any doubt) but I told them to go ahead and register for the event. I was still hoping to be able to join them but that was not to be.

As much as I was disappointed to miss out on a gaming outing with them, I was proud for them to head off on their own with their friend in tow. I always knew this moment would come. And it is as bittersweet as they come. Soon, I could be that old guy that goes to the LGS alone and hopes to find a pod to join! Maybe we’ll get to a point where I’ll bump into them at the store!

To top it all off, Noah ended up winning a Streets of New Capenna prize pack with Unlicensed Hearse in it! Pretty cool!

Just another exciting milestone! Not sure I live in a precarious place but like the griffins, my not-so-fledglings-anymore found themselves taking “their first flights at surprising moments,” namely a summer Monday night when bedtime curfews did not apply quite as much as during school time!