I was going to do a thought provoking post about the fact that we’re heading down to Florida tonight for the run I’m doing in memory of my Dad. We’re making half of the trip tonight after LilZ gets out of rehearsal and then the second half in the morning. We approached MrZ’s parents a few months ago about leaving AndyZ here with them since A) He is too young to remember any of it and B) He HATES the car so an 11-hour car ride could kill us all. They agreed so we’ll be leaving him behind for almost a week. While it will be sad not to have him with us, I think the trip will go better for everyone else without having to worry about diaper changes, naptimes, and car-induced demonic behavior.
The reason I can’t do anything too thought provoking about what this run means to my grief over missing Dad is because the child we’re leaving for a week? Decided he wanted to cram in as much time with me as possible by waking up at 2am. FOR THE DAY. It is now 4:17am and I’ve officially given up trying to get him back to sleep. I tried several things including finally getting him to sleep in my arms on the couch for the second time (the first time ended when I tried to put him in his crib) and opting to just put the couches together to make him a temporary crib. He slept there for about 20 minutes. And then he woke up. Again. So I’m not fighting it anymore and am embracing the situation by going ahead and brewing that pot of coffee I normally don’t start on until after 5am. I think waking up at 2am for the day justifies two pots of coffee, don’t you think?
Maybe I’ll do something thought-provoking tomorrow. In the meantime – enjoy this picture of my child before he became the devil.
There’s a small “park” next to the Publix we shop at. It has a nice covered picnic area, some outdoor exercise equipment, a big open field, and one small play structure with one tallish curly slide. We go there a lot. It’s an easy park to play at because there’s shade, space, and non-lethal play equipment. It is the first slide NikkiZ did by herself – and as of this weekend? The first slide AndyZ did alone.
Giving a child freedom on a play structure is a very hard thing to do. They always have openings that lead to poles to slide down, or ladders that are not suitable for small children. However, no child wants their parent going down the slide with them once they feel brave enough to do it alone. After one or two nail-biting moments (for me) AndyZ got the hang of doing the entire journey, from steps to slide, by himself. I stood near the one dangerous opening – either on top or at the bottom – just in case he decided to try to escape that way. But for the most part? I just watched and took pictures of my big boy. With his new big boy haircut. And his big boy shoes. And – OH MY GOD, WHERE IS MY BABY?
He is not brave enough to walk on the top level, but he’ll crawl! Sure you’re gonna be okay, Mom? You don’t look so good. Do I have the all clear down there? Moe Side! Moe Side!
Repeat this cycle of photos 19 million times and you have our park outing Friday afternoon. Loads of fun even if it was a bit repetitive. NikkiZ thinks the play structure is a bit boring but she loves the outdoor exercise equipment. At one point she said, “Mom. This is way more fun than home.”
I don’t have a lot of concrete memories of my childhood. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a lot of photos to solidify the memories, I’m not sure. But one of the most vivid memories I have is sitting in a line in the library at my school when I was probably in Junior High…and doing Criss-Cross Applesauce with my friends. I think every girl had similar routines they did, but it seems like they vary across regions. Either way, it was a combination of a nursery rhyme, and a back rub, all in one. I remember really wishing I could sit in front of one girl in particular in that line because she always had the BEST nails, but if I remember correctly everyone wanted to sit in front of her…so I think maybe we had to take turns or something. Either way, it’s quite a vivid memory in my mind.
I’ve used the same little song/backrub routine on my kids as just another game we play together. All of them love(d) it, of course. Who wouldn’t? It feels great! But AndyZ? Who I just introduced to it recently? Is totally addicted. I said something the other day about Ross from friends and he looked at me and said, “Mo’ Applesauce!” and came and sat down on my lap. If he hears anything even remotely sounding like “Applesauce” he freaks out. I decided to get LilZ to video it the other night. Please ignore the clutter in the background. Our bedroom is the last room in the house to get redone and is therefore the “Storage Room” for all sorts of crap.
AndyZ does this adorably cute thing when he hears a noise outside of the norm in a given situation. Whether it’s the ice cream truck in our neighborhood or an announcement over the loud speaker at a store. Sometimes he does it when he hears someone mowing grass or a dog barking in a neighboring yard. Either way, it is the CUTEST THING EVER. And of course we encourage it by all responding in like which I’m sure would make it’s own type of cute photo.
It’s these moments that I blog for. The ability to document these things that probably wouldn’t get their own scrapbook page if I was into that kind of thing. They aren’t even events that require videotaping or photo documentation for the average family who doesn’t carry a camera everywhere we go. But me? I have this camera, I have these photos, and I have this blog. And there are a few people out there who might find this simple entry something that makes them smile. Because it’s SO FREAKIN ADORABLE. And I’m tired after being out late (9pm) at my teenager’s first play and this is ALL YOU’RE GETTING FROM ME.
So…you get a daily dose of cuteness and I get to document on of the small habits of my youngest child for all of posterity. BLOGS ARE AWESOME.
