Monday, January 18, 2010

Only two.

I sat and watched my youngest boy run and play.

We spent the evening eating and playing at McDonald's. Its truly my definition of hell on earth, but I was ready to do anything for a break from the dark and cold that's been keeping us indoors and making us all stir crazy. I could have sat outside the glass-enclosed germ box, but Will is only two.

My husband laughs at me when I say that. "Hey - take it easy on him! He's only two."

"He's almost three."

"Yeah? But he's not yet. He's still two for another month."

True, he's usually the instigator of the UFC-style take downs that occur in my living room, but he's my baby none-the-less and I'm going to milk this last month of babydom for all its worth. So I sat in the cootie laden aquarium, close to the play structure, with my book.

I watched as he came flying down the slide without a single ounce of fear. Over and over again he climbed the stairs, crawled through a tube and flung himself into the dark tunnel of the slide. Every time, without fail, he'd come out at the end, jumping up and down, clapping his hands.

"I did it! I did it! By myself!"

I told him I saw...that I was watching...but before the words were even out of my mouth he was off again, climbing stairs. I sat back with my book.

His brother, by contrast, tired of the slide after just a few times and found the video games at the far end of the room. At one point, I saw Will walk over and put his brother in a head-lock. (Parents with girls will know these as "hugs".) Satisfied that neither of my children were the ones screaming, I went back to my book.

A few minutes later I did a kid count. There's Nick...no Will. Must watch the end of the slide...he'll be out any minute.

Except there was no Will. Don't worry. He's in there somewhere. He probably just met up with a little buddy inside the tunnel...watch the end of the slide...

A few minutes later there was still no Will. I contemplated looking like the spaz of a Mom who takes her purse and goes crawling into the tubes and slides to look for her missing child, but again told myself he couldn't have gone very far.

I gave it just a few minutes more before my brain started asking itself, But what if he did sneak out the door as someone else left and he's out in the restaurant crying, looking for his Mom? Or what if someone took him?!? They could be long gone by now! YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE TO LOOK FOR HIM -- YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT GUT INSTINCTS!

I decided that the less-spaztastic thing to do would be to have the older boy go in and look for the younger. So I got up and walked over to ask Nick to do just that and there's Will...playing the video game...too short for me to see behind the console, explaining in his made-up not-quite-English English how the game works to some other boy.

He's completely fine. Without me.

And he's only two.

three

8 comments:

Roger Miller said...

Oh yeah, growing up is so much fun - for the kids! For us parents, not so much. I look at Timmy and he's already six months old, and I am amazed that he is doing so much already.

Question for you, if I may, did you change your feed recently? Or maybe I deleted the wrong one. Anyway, I'm glad that you are still here and now I will go and play catch up. :)

Anonymous said...

Ugh. I despise that sort of a field trip, but my boys love it too. So scary when they're out of sight for that moment too long though, isn't it?

Kelly Miller said...

I am the spaztastic mother who lost her little girl for a split second in the McDonalds. One minute she was there and the next minute another mom yelled out to me, "I think your little girl just walked out!" Some days it definitely takes a village!

Watching them display their independence and slowly morph from babies until kids is tough. I try to remember they'll always need me, just not in the same ways.

Tara R. said...

When she was very young, I 'lost' my daughter in a Osh-Gosh store. I even got the manager to lock the front door. She was playing 'hide and seek' under one of the clothing racks. You were much calmer than I ever was.

Anonymous said...

I did the same thing last month when Doodle wandered away on a playground. It made my heart stop and I nearly lost it. Security found him within 30 seconds peering into the side of the Santa house less than 20 yards away from us. He was fine. Me and Steve? Not so much.

Tom said...

Will is so cute in this picture. Time flies so fast. :(

Lovely Lalo-Cha said...

Kids! This is a great post and a reminder to all parents: They grow up way to fast. Very cute picture.

mammydiaries said...

In a particularly spaztastic moment yesterday, I flashed my boobs to the parents having coffee at the local play gym when after crawling vigorously through the maze to find my own 2 year old, I realized, upon my exit, that both of the girls had escaped the confines of my bra and were now flapping about outside my sweater. Mortified.