I may not have written a March 26 post, but I sure did think about you a lot that day. And today, I was thinking about things I have learned since we began this experiment. In no particular order:
- most toys are not worth buying. It may sound cliche, but you have had the most fun playing with wooden blocks, empty cardboard boxes, balls, and yesterday for the first time, a paper bag.
this video is long!
- it is wise to rotate toys in and out of accessibility. A car you haven't seen in a few weeks is like a BRAND. NEW. TOY!!! But with the added value of slight recognition. Also, and related: if you don't seem to enjoy a particular toy, we just rotate it out and try it again later. It's pretty cool how you can totally not care about a multi-colored rolling wooden wheel toy for months, and then chase it around the house screaming hysterically (happy) for half an hour.
- As with toys, so with food. When you were a little guy just beginning to eat "real" food, you LOVED avocado. And then you didn't. And now you do again, some days. Same with strawberries. And yogurt. And most everything else, except bread and french fries - you hardly ever turn those down.
- sleep is not a science. some nights you sleep for 7+ hours, some nights you don't. You have two data driven and analytic parents who have run the studies looking for correlation, causation, pattern recognition, and witchcraft, and we have figured out that we don't know what the deal is.
- stoicism is important for dads, and yet is harder to practice when you are a dad. I have always given consideration to possible bad outcomes, but when I think about how and what could happen to by best little buddy I get all, well, unstoic
- one never knows what is going on in a kid's head
- making you laugh is the best. It makes me feel better than making money or making a mai tai, or watching The Big Lebowski. Novelty is so powerful with you, and I'm constantly thinking of things I can show you or do for you that will get you going on that goofy, toothy smile and then ramp it up into the chuckle. The belly laugh is more than I can ask for, and when it comes it's like jumping the fence onto Shields-Watkins field after UT beat Florida in overtime...it's a rush.
Way to go Jude! That's some serious growing up you've been doing.
ReplyDeleteExcellent ball control, once it was time for it to be out of the bag again. Excellent mirror control, too... though I too am mystified about the plot of that scene.
Happy times.