We’re halfway through the Fort­night of Many House­guests, and my visit with my dad (who left yes­ter­day) is fresh in my mind. We have always been close, but it’s rare that we get a lot of one-on-one time. I knew I’d enjoy hav­ing him here for a few days, I just didn’t real­ize how much.

Hav­ing a few days with my dad solo reminded me that while my mom and I have things we share, so do my dad and I. We always have to eat deli (this trip included Langer’s and Canter’s). The man loves a tast­ing menu, and the meal we ate at Prov­i­dence included the best scal­lop I have ever eaten in my life. (OK, we like to eat.)

Shar­ing a meal together is just the back­drop for talk­ing. About every­thing and any­thing. Office pol­i­tics, fam­ily pol­i­tics, why we are the way we are—it’s all up for dis­cus­sion. What I value most about my dad, though—and trust me, there’s a lot about him to love—is his will­ing­ness, “even as an old man,” as he would say, to try some­thing new. We’re always evolv­ing, always chang­ing, and just when I start to think we’re set in our ways, my dad reminds me that we’re all works in progress.

Since Mother’s Day is upon us, I should prob­a­bly men­tion that my dad would say he couldn’t be who he is today with­out my mom. So here’s to par­ents in gen­eral, par­tic­u­larly mine! And here’s the lat­est object of my affec­tion, the mono­grammed Dwell dia­per bag, unfor­tu­nately not yet avail­able for pur­chase. Until baby boy has a name, my urge to mono­gram will stay with my own “RAB.”