Choices

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Peace.

May 23, 2010 | 3 comments

You know what a super ball is, right? It’s one of those small rubber balls you get for a quarter out of a vending machine at the grocery store. When thrown, it ricochets from the wall, the floor, to the wall, to the ceiling and back again at speeds and angles that seem to defy the laws of physics.

At times, if you stopped and watched Squirts from the far end of a large room, you might think he was trying to catch one of those super balls just after being bounced against a wall. But as you got closer, you would probably begin to wonder what happened to the ball? Then, as you got even closer, you would realize, there is no ball. That’s just Squirts-in-motion!

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Who Do You Think You Are?

March 28, 2010 | 1 comment

Squirts has so many memories of his Papa (my wife’s dad) that the most random things will stir some recollection he is compelled to share with us. If we pass a certain restaurant, Squirts will point it out and say, “Oh, my Papa loves Chuck E. Cheese!”

Sometimes when we are eating a meal, Squirts will remember some of his Papa’s favorite foods. “Oh, my Papa loves mint chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce just like me.” Of course, he remembers some of his least favorite too. “Oh no, Papa doesn’t like peas either.”

Apparently Papa had some interesting careers as well. At different times, Squirts has told us that his Papa drove an eighteen-wheeler and that he was a pool lifeguard.

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Flying Free

March 7, 2010 | 6 comments

My son’s bowels have an amazing ability to know when we’ve left the house. It’s as if they have some sort of GPS system that lights up as Squirts moves away from our home. It’s seems like the further we are from our house, the more likely they will need to, uh, move. In the year and a few months Squirts has been completely out of diapers, we’ve seen the inside of more department store, grocery store, coffee shop, ice cream shop and mall restrooms than I’ve probably seen my whole adult life.

A few months ago, Squirts and I were on our way to church. Squirts’ mom had already been there for several hours because she leads the worship arts there. On this fine Sunday morning, about halfway through our 30 minute drive to church, Squirts announces his need to go poo-poo.

After a quick glance to the back seat, I recognize the wide-eyed look that says without words “ AND NOW!” (Squirts bowels also have a certain sense of immediacy when they make their presence known.)

Visualizing the path to church, I remember a gas station and a Starbucks at the next exit.  Form past experience, I know that Squirts is very comfortable with the ambience of the Starbucks’ facilities, so that’s the direction we head.

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Becoming the Incredible Hulk

February 28, 2010 | 2 comments

Watching television with Squirts is never boring—not that the programs he chooses aren’t boring or repetitive or mind-numbing. But Squirts has a way of spicing it up by becoming a part of anything he watches on TV. Shortly after the show begins, he picks a character with whom he identifies—and then becomes.

“Mommy,” he says, “I’m Diego. And you’re that girl. Daddy, you’re Baby Jaguar.” Or, “Daddy, I’m The Incredible Hulk. You’re that guy with knives that come out of his hands.”

I’m not always the strange animal character, but it’s not unusual. In fact, lately, he’s been hogging all of the good characters. “Daddy, I’m Shaggy, Freddy and Scooby. Uh, you’re that ghost.”

As he watches the show, he becomes the character he has chosen. He even talks in first-person throughout his ongoing commentary of the program. It was a little startling at first when he said, “Daddy, you look like you want to hit me,” or when he asked, “Why are my feet so big?”

It took a couple of flustered promises that I had no desire to hit him before I realized he was talking about “my” character looking angry. And I’m not sure I was really any help when I assured him that, yes, he does have large feet, but I’m sure other kids wouldn’t notice.

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