My Son, World Traveler
If I think happy thoughts, I won't brood on the fact that Alex won't be here in time for my family reunion thanks to a hang up with his visa. I need to not focus on the fact that he's now not going to be here for another 5 weeks or so probably. It makes it harder when my son and daughter ask when he's coming back about three times a day. In fact, my son just made an envelope and tried to write his (jared's) name on it, and put some things in it for Alex. He's clutching it and insisting he's going to hold on to it until Alex arrives because he wants to give it to him as a present. How do you NOT start crying when your four year old son does that and he just can't accept that it'll be a long time before he gets here? What is he going to do, hold on to the envelope for five weeks? Sigh.
Anyway, happy thoughts, happy thoughts....
Ok, so I realized that my son has traveled more at four and a half years of age than most folks do before they die at 80. He REALLY loves to just get up and go. Going anyplace he's not gone before excites him. This is not a boy who will be sitting at home with his wife night after night, watching reruns and eating popcorn. This is a boy who will come home from work, grin at his wife, wave around two tickets to Greece and say, guess where we're going next week hon! haha!
Jared has been to Canada, England, and France. He has been to Washington (primarily Seattle, but we also drove around and saw surrounding areas), Texas, North Carolina, and Florida. He has been all over South Carolina beyond where we live (mostly Charleston, Hilton Head, and Columbia). I guess it never hit me how much he enjoyed all that travel until we came home from France. My son, at midnight, as we loaded up in the car after about 24 hrs of straight train/subway/plane/customs/plane movement, looked like a content little man in his booster seat as I buckled him in. "Mom, that was a great trip. I really enjoyed it," was what he said, or something very similar to it. I had to laugh. But after leaving Florida and my parent's house to come back here, I finally understood how badly he WANTS to go to new places. You see, my parents are right now in China on their dream vacation (45th wedding anniversary, and mom said by the 50th one they probably wouldn't be in as good health to hike out to the Great Wall, etc). When we were loading up in the car, Ariana said, why can't we just STAY with Grammy and PawPaw? I said, because they are going to China! Ari said, oh, ok, and loaded up in the car. Jared then ran over to my mom and clung to her leg. "I wanna stay!" And my mom said, honey, I'm sorry, but you have to head back home now...we'll see you at the family reunion in a month. He pouted. His response was classic: "But...but...I've never BEEN to China!" he cried out. Mom and I laughed. I can't believe that I have a four year old who gets upset because he missed out on a trip to China. Ariana was upset because she wanted to be around her grandparents some more; Jared was upset because he wouldn't get to go to Asia.
My children facinate me. One thing that I think is hilarious is that they are both water babies. I don't mean that they are world-class swimmers. I mean that they LOVE water, have no fear of water, and thrive in it. My daughter can swim. When she was 18 months old, I had to keep constant watch on her because she would try to hurl herself into any body of water she found. Once, she slipped through my grasp and plunged into a river we were sitting near. I jumped in next to her immediately, pulled my completely submerged daughter out of the water, and...she came out laughing. Choking on some water, but laughing. Gees! Of course, with my daughter, it's more of: she fears nothing. I don't know why, but it's just very hard for her to get scared. My son, on the other hand, has a normal range of childhood fears. However, there I was at the apartment pool yesterday, diving this way and that because he can't swim and he was barrelling into the water full blast over and over again. He didn't care if he choked on water. I had those little water wings on him so he wouldn't die before I reached him, but that was the best I could do. And Ariana wonders why I prefer to only take them swimming when I have another adult with me to help!
Anyway, happy thoughts, happy thoughts....
Ok, so I realized that my son has traveled more at four and a half years of age than most folks do before they die at 80. He REALLY loves to just get up and go. Going anyplace he's not gone before excites him. This is not a boy who will be sitting at home with his wife night after night, watching reruns and eating popcorn. This is a boy who will come home from work, grin at his wife, wave around two tickets to Greece and say, guess where we're going next week hon! haha!
Jared has been to Canada, England, and France. He has been to Washington (primarily Seattle, but we also drove around and saw surrounding areas), Texas, North Carolina, and Florida. He has been all over South Carolina beyond where we live (mostly Charleston, Hilton Head, and Columbia). I guess it never hit me how much he enjoyed all that travel until we came home from France. My son, at midnight, as we loaded up in the car after about 24 hrs of straight train/subway/plane/customs/plane movement, looked like a content little man in his booster seat as I buckled him in. "Mom, that was a great trip. I really enjoyed it," was what he said, or something very similar to it. I had to laugh. But after leaving Florida and my parent's house to come back here, I finally understood how badly he WANTS to go to new places. You see, my parents are right now in China on their dream vacation (45th wedding anniversary, and mom said by the 50th one they probably wouldn't be in as good health to hike out to the Great Wall, etc). When we were loading up in the car, Ariana said, why can't we just STAY with Grammy and PawPaw? I said, because they are going to China! Ari said, oh, ok, and loaded up in the car. Jared then ran over to my mom and clung to her leg. "I wanna stay!" And my mom said, honey, I'm sorry, but you have to head back home now...we'll see you at the family reunion in a month. He pouted. His response was classic: "But...but...I've never BEEN to China!" he cried out. Mom and I laughed. I can't believe that I have a four year old who gets upset because he missed out on a trip to China. Ariana was upset because she wanted to be around her grandparents some more; Jared was upset because he wouldn't get to go to Asia.
My children facinate me. One thing that I think is hilarious is that they are both water babies. I don't mean that they are world-class swimmers. I mean that they LOVE water, have no fear of water, and thrive in it. My daughter can swim. When she was 18 months old, I had to keep constant watch on her because she would try to hurl herself into any body of water she found. Once, she slipped through my grasp and plunged into a river we were sitting near. I jumped in next to her immediately, pulled my completely submerged daughter out of the water, and...she came out laughing. Choking on some water, but laughing. Gees! Of course, with my daughter, it's more of: she fears nothing. I don't know why, but it's just very hard for her to get scared. My son, on the other hand, has a normal range of childhood fears. However, there I was at the apartment pool yesterday, diving this way and that because he can't swim and he was barrelling into the water full blast over and over again. He didn't care if he choked on water. I had those little water wings on him so he wouldn't die before I reached him, but that was the best I could do. And Ariana wonders why I prefer to only take them swimming when I have another adult with me to help!
posted by Kira | 1:34 PM
4 Comments:
Hmm... Sounds like you've got a perfect candidate for Secret Foreign Agent #18x on your hands! The Government approves greatly, I'm sure. Perhaps they'll even send you some Super Pumpkins or something later this summer... Now that would be cool.
And remember: large bodies of water are not complete without cute and fuzzy small animals! You should definitely make sure that Jared and Ari are exposed to both together, otherwise the lack of fuzziness shall surely haunt them forever later in life. :P
I hope those five weeks fly by. It made me tear up to hear about the envelope, so I know you must have really been moved in all different directions - sad because Alex is not there yet, happy because you see how much your kids love him, happy because you realize how much you love him... which brings you back to being happy about how much he loves you. There's lots to be happy about, right?
Anna makes an excellent babysitter, btw. She's been taking care of younger kids forever now. And all that athleticism pays off at the pool. =o) So, maybe we need to plan a picnic to somewhere where they can all swim.
I've got a water baby TOO! Stephanie was about to plunge into a lake at the park last March (freezing!). She scares me to death.
Thanks for commenting on my blog. Your liquor cabinet comment killed me b/c that's one of the first things that popped into my head when I kicked the X out! I can have a glass of wine now!!!
Good luck with the waiting!
Laura
Awww...Kira, this was such a cute story. Kids are wonderful aren't they. They can be both heart-warming and entertaining...sometimes all at once. And you relate the stories SO well!! Thanks.
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