This past Saturday my wife and I went down to visit my grandmother, Baba, with our son. The long awaited trip, postponed numerous times due to illness or conflicting schedules, finally took place. Baba had been wanting to see our son and we had wanted to bring him there sooner, but in a building full of elderly people, its never a good idea to enter when you are sick, regardless of how mild the sickness may be. The last time we had been down to visit Baba as a family was back in December the same day we got our Christmas tree. So needless to say, it had been a while. Our son fell asleep on the way down, but luckily we had one more stop to make in the area so we figured we would do that first and let him sleep in the car while my wife ran into the store. Well, the idea was good in theory, however, we should have known that as soon as the car was put into park and shut off, our son would wake up, which he did. So, instead of staying in the car with him, we all went into the store, REI in Norwalk, which turned out to be pretty fun for him. The whole point of going to REI was to get my wife some new hiking boots, so we all went to the shoe section so my wife could try some on. Well, the abundance of sneakers and boots hanging on the wall proved to be too much for our son not to play with. He wanted to take down as many sneakers as he could, put them back in the wrong place, and occasionally try some on his own feet. It took all my effort to replace shoes where they belonged as soon as he took them off. One or two sample shoes, not a problem, over 5 and I start to forget exactly where they came from. Soon after, I re-directed him away from the shoes and we started playing run and catch while my wife tried her boots on. The game is simply comprised of our son running away from me and me running to catch him. It gets fun when I duck around a display and surprise him on the other side where he isn't expecting me. As soon as he sees me, he giggles, turns around and runs as fast as he can in the other direction. If he goes back to the same spot, he will cautiously look around the corner I surprised him from previously and wait to see if I will pop out again. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. All in all, the trip into REI was fun. After a little while, my wife found a pair of hiking boots that fit and that she liked and we were off to see Baba.
When we got to Baba's "home", my wife and son remained in the lobby which has plenty of room for our little one to run around while I traveled upstairs to get Baba. Baba was in her room when I got up there and when she saw me, she cleared one of the seats in her room so I could sit down. I asked how she was and she said her feet were hurting her. To be honest, she looked mildly miserable. Before she got a chance to sit down, I told her that I brought my wife and son along and they were down in the lobby waiting. As soon as I said my son's name, her whole demeanor changed and she headed straight for the door. We just had to find her walker first, which wasn't in her room. Luckily, she had left it just outside her door next to some chairs in the hallway. We got the walker and we were off to head downstairs. It was so nice to see the change in Baba once I said our son's name, and even more so when we got downstairs and she actually got to see him. It was very interesting to see our son's reaction to seeing Baba. Normally with older people, he gets a little shy and tries to run away. With Baba, perhaps because he has seen her picture on our mantle at home, he let her grab his hands, kiss them and then pull him towards her so she could kiss him on the head. He didn't resist, object, or try to pull away immediately. As soon as she was down showering him with kisses, he was off to run around play with his blocks, move tables around, and simply explore the lobby. We sat and played for a while, Baba watching him and talking with us. About a half hour in, he wanted to take her walker and move it around. As he had done the same thing when he was a little younger, we let him take it again and walk around the lobby with it. I followed close behind just to make sure that he didn't run into anything or anyone. He went back and forth, circling here, stopping over there, going back again. Then at one point, he was moving the walker from the carpet towards the marble floor, a transition he had just made about 5 times without issue. This time, however, the front of the walker caught a little bit, and toppled forward with him following close behind. He slammed his face into the marble floor which resulted in a bloody nose and some screaming. The screaming was short lived, however, another testament to the hard headed nature of our family, and the bloody nose stopped soon after. That was the only issue we ran into while visiting Baba.
The bloody nose marked the beginning of the end of our visit. Soon after that, he started getting a little antsy and starting to pack up his bag to leave. When we wouldn't let him put everything away, he figured he would just go for the door and leave himself. He has a tendency to know when he is done with something and that is the end of it. The doors that he went to are heavy glass doors that take a good amount of effort to push open. I didn't think he would be able to make it through the first set, yet he proved me wrong again. Determined to get out of there, he pushed and pushed and pushed until he got the door open and he could make it in between the two sets of doors. I immediately got him before he could try and open the outer set of doors to the outside. So with that, we really did start packing up to leave. Baba was extremely happy to see him and grateful that we had brought him down. I am hoping that we won't have to wait four months to make another trip down as a family to see Baba. I know that I will try and make it down there once a week and if not, at least every other week. I am just glad that she continuously remembers who our son is and his name. It doesn't always happen with everyone, so at least she has that bright spot to remember for now. One more thing before I finish up for today. I mentioned that our son likes to leave anywhere when he is ready. On Sunday when we went to church, he was ready to go right before the end of Mass. As we were saying the final prayer, he grabbed his diaper bag, put it on his shoulder, and walked out of the pew and to the side door of the church where he proceeded to sit on the ground and wait. It was the cutest thing he has done in a while. Well, besides all the other cuteness that comes along with an 18 month old. So with that, I leave you for today.
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