In addition to apple picking and head butts this past weekend, I forgot to mention a funny/not so funny moment I had with my son on Sunday. During his afternoon nap, my wife had to run out to pick up some art work she had submitted to a show. It wasn't long after she left that he woke up from his nap and was ready to go for the afternoon. As is normally the case with any afternoon, he wanted to watch cars go by on our street. So with nothing else to do, I took him out front with a chair and proceeded to watch cars go up and down our street. We watched cars for about a half hour before he wanted to get down and go inspect my Jeep Wrangler. Besides watching cars go up and down our street, he loves to play inside cars, crawling between the front and back seats, playing with all the controls, pushing buttons, and pretending to drive. The fun part about letting him play in any car is that you never know what is going to happen when you actually turn the car on. With my Jeep, there aren't nearly as many buttons and knobs to push, pull, and turn, but he was still having a blast, especially with opening and closing the doors. Of course, while he was playing inside the Jeep, I was running around the outside of the Jeep playing hide and seek and making him laugh hysterically whenever I would pop up unexpected. After a few minutes of that, I sat in the passenger seat while he was in the driver seat playing. At one point, he pointed to a lizard that I have sitting on my dashboard (fake of course). I picked it up and showed it to him. He didn't know what it was so he was cautious at first. Then I moved it towards him like it was going to tickle him. Well, he backed up quickly, leaned against the driver side door which hadn't latched all the way from him playing with it, and started falling out of the Jeep. I had two options, let him fall and crack his head on the curb, or grab his arm and pull him back into the Jeep. I obviously chose the second option. Reacting with the speed of a puma, I grabbed his arm as he was halfway out of the Jeep and pulled him back in. I grabbed him harder than I probably needed to, but in the heat of the moment, I would rather grab him too hard than not hard enough and have him slip out of my grip. So with disaster averted and him back in the Jeep with the door firmly closed, I went to go put the lizard that was laying on the driver seat back on the dash.
As I touched the lizard, he started screaming at the top of his lungs in fear and crocodile tears started pouring from his face as he tried to disappear into the driver seat. I have never seen him that afraid of something ever, and it was all because of me. It obviously wasn't intentional, but the series of events conspired to create a fear of lizards in my son. Thinking about it right afterwards, I could see that he associated the lizard with two things; a) falling out of the Jeep and b) a really firm grip on his arm pulling him. There was a direct association between pain and falling and my tiny fake lizard that is about 5 inches long. Even a few minutes after the event happened, I wanted to see if the fear was lingering. I simply touched the lizard which sent him into shivering, tears, and screaming again. So, lesson learned, don't by any fake lizards for my son. I laughed after the fact because while I understood his association between the events, I had never seen something like that first hand and while I felt horrible about it, I also laughed. Such is life, I am sure within a few years he will get over his fear. Then again, maybe he won't. Only time will tell.
On a slightly different note, I got to feel our new child moving around the other day as my wife and I were sitting on the couch watching TV. According to her, it seems that when she is up and moving around during the day, the baby is still and sleeping. As soon as she sits down for a little bit, the baby wakes up and starts moving around, kicking, pushing, and doing whatever else it does inside its little home. It was just as exciting as feeling our son kick when he was inside my wife. Its almost like its confirmation that there really is a baby in there and that it is alive and growing. The kicks and pushes were obviously still fairly faint, but they were definitely there. Even the movement was pretty cool, sliding around, doing its flips or whatever else it does. I am pretty sure that I have no idea what is coming after our new baby is born in terms of the craziness of life, but I know that I will love it. At this point, I am just taking everything one day at a time. When the time comes, I will go nuts, but for now I am trying to maintain my sanity. So far I am holding on to it. So far...
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