A Memory to which I’d like to Hold On

If I could put time in a bottle, last night would’ve been a deposit I would’ve made. However, I can’t stop time and my little boy’s relentless march toward becoming a big boy continues. So I’ll just do the next best thing, blog on the memory. And while I likely won’t be able to adequately convey our adventures of last Sunday night, just the act of re-reading this, as I’ll eventually do, will likely trigger the emotions of the memory.

Erin was away for the evening, attending the HS graduation of her adopted sister and since we knew a graduation would not be a good place for Dawson, I had the late afternoon/ evening alone with my boy. As soon as he woke up from his nap, I strapped him in the jogging stroller and headed toward Cornerstone Park. We took our usual route; past the HS, through a newer neighborhood, then eventually through the older, tree-lined neighborhood.

As soon as I unstrapped the restraining harness of the stroller, Dawson tore off toward the playground equipment. As usual, he occasionally stopped his passionate run over the bridges and down the slides to get an approving smile from his daddy. One time, I had to keep Dawson from crashing the birthday party taking place in the shelter. Knowing he was hungry, we sat down at the picnic table and with legs swinging from the bench, Dawson munched down his peanut-butter crackers. Occasionally, he picked up the lid of the little orange container, looked at the cartoon drawing of a cat’s face on it and gave a “meeoow.” But what really melted my heart were the smiles he kept throwing up over his right shoulder, in my direction. Maybe that was just because I kept giving him more crackers. Or maybe it was because he was enjoying the daddy-son outing as much as me.

“I see dogs” was the enthusiastic answer to the question of whether we should go to the dog show happening the nearby 4-H building. Inside, the sight of all those dogs, the barking and the clapping almost over stimulated Dawson. And when I asked whether we should go to another park, I was given the reply “ut-her pak.” So we played on the playground of Gardner Elementary, Dawson fearlessly, then cautiously, running along the swinging bridge under the bright late-afternoon sun.

At first, he threw a mini-fit about the idea of leaving the park, but I explained we needed to go eat “dineh,” so he walked toward and climbed into the stroller. At home, he tried climbing into his booster seat and again got a big angry when I said we needed to go “bye-bye.” Although he didn’t understand what I meant, Dawson tried to mimic my explanation of where we’d eat with a “Ma-don-owd.”

At McDonalds, he kept trying to run behind the counter as I was waiting to order the food. He then pointed at the toys in the Happy Meal display and I thought, “wont’ be long before he’s asking for one of those.” And while the Chicken was too spicy, he sure wolfed down his fries. And again, I got some more heart-warming smiles as he ate the fries and swung his legs in the thin-air beneath his seat.

I eventually realized that since we were at a fast-food restaurant, it was a bit pointless to insist he eat some more bites of chicken before getting the “tweet.” So I ordered the treat of an ice-cream fudge Sunday and we shared the dessert together.

Later that night, my announcement that it was time to go “night-night” was met by an enthusiastic cheer, demonstrating just how tired my boy was. He grabbed the tooth brush and was trying to do it on his own before I even got into the bathroom. That version of the usual bed-time routine was enjoyable and sweet, reading the usual “Mouse” and “Moon” and singing about “Sunshine” and all the people in my little boy’s little world. With Monkey and Cow joining him underneath Blanket, Dawson quickly fell into a much needed sleep. Though the fact that I forgot to give pain medicine to the teething boy made for a rough night’s sleep.

I can’t hold onto my little boy, keeping him a little boy. I can, however fiercely hold onto the memories; keeping the memories from fading the way my suntan from Sunday afternoon is already fading.

To A Child Love Is Spelled T-I-M-E

Take them to a movie they want to see.
Go on a treasure hunt (collect all the loose change around the house/car) together and then make a trip to the arcade with your findings.
Take a long nature walk together, at their pace. Let them lead the conversation. Find qualities about them that you genuinely love, and compliment them in front of others.
Frame a photo of the two of you, and display it in their room.
Put a few Hershey’s Hugs in one of their coat pockets, and Kisses in the other.
Play a game with them.
Let them win.
Make bath time special. Add lots of bubbles, colored soaps, maybe you could purchase a new tub toy or let them play with things found around the house. I let my kids play with things like colanders and funnels from the kitchen—they love it. Don’t forget to warm the towel!
Send them a handmade card in the mail with a coupon to go get ice cream with you.
Gather all the home movies that feature them as the “star” and have a movie night complete with popcorn and treats.
Using blankets and chairs, or a card table, build a clubhouse together and have a picnic inside.
Read “I love you” books together.
Let them stay up past their bedtime with you and watch cartoon classics together.
Do a chore that is normally reserved for them.
Tuck an encouraging note inside their lunchbox.
Give them your full attention.
Tell them some of the ways they make you happy.
Make them laugh.
Laugh with them.
Make their favorite treat to welcome them home from school with.
Show them your joy when they arrive.
Ask for hugs and kisses.
Listen, and let them make their own decisions whenever possible.
Make them a coupon book filled with things they’d enjoy doing, or things they’d like to get out of doing.
Take a day off from everything: work, household duties, technology, etc. and focus entirely on them.
Cook together.
Write them a poem using the initials of their name.
Decorate their room for no reason.
Create a sign that lavishes them with praise.
Kidnap them from school and take them out for lunch.
Make home a fun place to be.
Make a treasure box from an old shoe box, fill it with “gold” (chocolate coins) and make an official looking treasure map with clues for them to locate the hidden treasure with.
Go to the store and let them pick out all the ingredients to make banana splits. Make and eat them together.
Wrap up in a warm blanket together and take turns making up stories to tell each other.
Make a list of things you love about them and put it on their pillow before bedtime.
Talk about what they did in their day at dinnertime.
Sit down together and write a list of fun activities to do in a day. Write each idea on small slips of paper, roll up the papers and stick them inside balloons. Blow up all the balloons and then pop one balloon at a time until you’ve completed all the activities.
Play back rub/tickle games—ie; Spider crawling up your back…
Make a CD with all their favorite tunes and have a dance party.

March and April videos

Vocabulary

As is normal for this age, Dawson’s vocabulary is EXPLODING! But not only is he able to name all kinds of things around him, he is also speaking short, but complete sentences. Sentences containing pronouns, direct objects and even the occasional conjugated verb. When he’s trying, for the hundredth time, to persuade us to let him watch one of his favorite shows, he’ll state, “I watch it, Thomas” (or Nemo, or Elmo, etc). He is singing to us most of the alphabet and the better part of the song “sunshine.” What’s really impressive to me is how he’s finishing the sentences of book or adding in words, like the end of the phrases in “Good Night, Moon” or as I’m reading the line “one morning the warm sun came up and..” from “The Very Hunger Caterpillar”, Dawson will enthusiastically add the “POP” of that sentence.

I think what impressed me the most, however was the other night during dinner. We were, again, getting on the floor to pick up the plastic fork he had, again, thrown on the floor. When he had it in his hand, I told Dawson to put the fork on the, the, the… and the word just wouldn’t come to me. So Dawson decided to help his daddy out, supplying the missing word – “tehbal” (my best phonetic spelling of Dawson’s “table.” His pronunciation may not be quite correct yet, but Dawson was able to produce a word that wasn’t able to make it through his daddy’s temporary mind block. That’s some serious vocab and language development.