Today marks exactly one year home for Little Boy. One year! Six inches taller! Ten pounds heavier! Hundreds of English words savvier!
Sometimes I wish I could freeze time, and Little Boy could remain as he is now forever: Cute, obliging, curious, excited, cuddly, and small enough to be carried (for 5 minutes or so).
Yesterday we went to the Blue Hills for a picnic at the Ponkapoag Bog. After a 20 minute walk to the bog, we teetered on the half-mile boardwalk through the bog, most of which is dessicated from our springtime drought. He walked extremely well on the boards. He was excited to see a frog. We passed another family with an older boy who had apparently “taken a unexpected swim” as his mom commented to us, and as we passed she pointed at Little Boy and said “See? He’s much younger than you, and he can do it!” I wanted to say, “Well, he he’s too young to realize he has a choice.”
When we reached the end of the bog walk in the lake, Little Boy stepped onto a submerged log and was very surprised when his shoes and socks got wet. He howled. He couldn’t believe it. He was very eager to go back to dry land and have our picnic.
We spread out a mat near the lake and ate pate, which Little Boy is very passionate about (like his daddy).
After eating, Little Boy found Mr. P’s phone and managed to bring up the Angry Birds game. “Look, Little Boy, there are real birds all around us,” I told him, but he didn’t seem to hear me.
So when Little Boy was being distracted by a large bug, I grabbed the phone and sneaked it back to Mr. P, who put it in his pocket. It took Little Boy a second to realize the phone was gone. “Oh, I think a bird carried it away,” I said.
“What?” he asked.
“A bird flew down and took the phone.” I handed him his kid-sized binoculars. “Let’s see if we can find the bird, okay?”
Little Boy was distraught. “Daddy, we go to the store and get more phone,” he suggested.
In our moment of peace, we laid down on the mat as Little Boy looked around for the thieving bird. Then, a whoop. “Daddy! Phone in your pocket! In your pocket!” Yes, indeed, he spotted the outline of the phone in Mr. P’s pocket. “Bird no take phone! You joking!”
I thought he would be mad, but he seemed genuinely amused, and we all laughed very hard. Then Little Boy took the phone and commenced playing Angry Birds.
We did get Little Boy to put down the phone to play some whiffle ball (Mommy had to teach him how to stand properly when batting, because Daddy is French). Then we headed back to the car, holding hands and enjoying the sunshine, and the trees, and the birds.
