While I have much to say about world events, the upcoming elections, and other topics; I must get back to talking about my son for today. This summer, while I was only working 4 days a week and taking the extra to spend with my family (wife and son), it was not the same as spending the whole day alone with my son as I do when my wife is in school teaching. It seemed that when both of us were home with him, there was always something else for me to do around the house because my wife was capable of watching our son while I did other things. I absolutely took time to spend with him as well, but it was not nearly as much as I was used to during the school year. But seeing as it is September and my wife is back at work, I now get a whole day during the week to spend with our son, to watch him grow, to play with him, and to just enjoy being around him. I forgot how much fun I have with him on our days off and it is now starting up again. The big difference between spending time with him now versus even a few months ago is that he has developed more of his unique personality, has grown tremendously, and is now much more active and inquisitive. In short, he is much more engaging now than he was a few months ago. Last week I got a special treat as I had Thursday off with him and Friday I had an afternoon wedding to go to so I got to spend some extra time with him Friday morning after I took care of a few hours of work. Those two days were packed full of experiences that I will not forget. So to move past the intro of my new current schedule, I will get into the nitty gritty now.
Thursday was an absolute picture perfect day. It was nice and cool in the morning with very low humidity and when it did warm up, it wasn't at all oppressive or disgusting. That being the case, I decided that I needed to bring our son to the beach for the first time. Despite the fact that we had the whole summer to get to the beach, often times it was too hot or too humid for it to be enjoyable. Therefore, last Thursday was our first excursion to play in the sand. We went down to Silver Sands beach in Milford and walked along the relatively new boardwalk there until we found a good place to park the stroller and get dirty. We didn't get that far into the sand before our son wanted to sit down and see what the mysterious white stuff was that we were walking on. Once plopping down onto his but with his legs fully extended, he proceeded to stick his hands right in the sand and pulled up hand fulls of it, only to let it fall through his fingers onto his pants or into a pile. Amidst the sand there were obviously little rocks, seashells, and a variety of flotsam washed up from some far corners of the earth (or more likely just down the shoreline). Every seashell he picked up was thoroughly inspected and placed in a pile. With our son, nothing ever really stays in a pile, rather, it is just a holding place until he decides a new pile needs to be made or an object needs to be discarded. This continued for quite some time, about 45 minutes to be exact. Every time I offered him my hand to get up and walk a little farther in the sand, he would simply look at my hand and go back to playing with the sand. He wanted nothing to do with moving from his little spot. Eventually I picked him up and brought him down to the water. With his feet in the wet sand getting softly lapped at by the little waves, he tried walking right into the water, pants and all. As he can not quite walk yet on his own, I prevented it and brought him back to dry land (or sand if you will). It was amazing to watch his curiosity with this new found substance, sand, and all the treasures to be found buried in its soft embrace. We were down at the beach for close to 2 hours before making our way back home. The fresh salt air tired him out completely and he almost fell asleep on the ride home.
Friday brought a few different surprises for me. I wasn't with him the whole day but I did get to watch him for a few hours while my wife ran out to the doctors. During that time, I decided to cut my hair while our son was feeding himself cut up peaches from his high chair tray. Normally, I only cut my hair a few times a year. The point at which I recognize the need to cut it is when I get up in the morning and it looks like crap (bedhead) and I can't just venture out into the world and look decent without work. So I grabbed the electric shaver, adjusted the setting, and sitting in front of him, began the process of getting rid of most of my hair. The first few swipes brought a look of shock to his face. As I continued though, his bottom lip started to curl downwards into a pout and his eyes began to tear up. It slowly got worse the more hair I cut off of my head. I didn't even finish cutting my hair because I didn't want him to get too upset. When I put down the shaver and reached over to comfort him, he burst out in tears and said quite loudly and with complete seriousness what I interpreted as "enough". He can't talk yet, but what he said was pretty damn close and made complete sense given the circumstances. He quickly recovered once I put the shaver down and all was not lost. Despite his getting upset, it was extremely cute to watch his concern over his dad's changing features. Once I stopped, I got back to putting peaches on his tray so he could feed himself. At that point, he did something he has never done before. The way I fed him was to put a little pile of peaches in front of him from which he could grab individual pieces and shove them in his mouth. He ate most of the pile and when there was one or two pieces left, he picked up one at a time and reached for me. Unsure at first of what he was doing, I simply opened my mouth thinking he might be wanting to feed me. When I did that, he reached a little farther. So I met him in the middle, he stuck his hand in my mouth and let go of the food. In short, he fed his dad the last few pieces from the pile of peaches in front of him. With the pile gone, I put a new pile there and he repeated the same procedure; ate the majority of the pile and fed me the last few bites. It was adorable. After each bite I made sure to thank him for sharing his food with me. He did this a number of times before he was completely full and wanted nothing more to do with food. So with those being the exciting events of last week, I can't wait to see what this week holds as I spend yet another day alone with him. Every week is a surprise and every week is joy on my part.
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