As an adult, I have those occasional moments when I find I
don't possess the words necessary to convey whatever the topic is I'm trying to
get across. Case in point, reference that last sentence. It took me 39 words to
express a pretty normal thought. If I feel that way though, imagine how a
one-year-old feels as he reacts to the world around him.
To change topics slightly, I want to take this opportunity
to brag on Ethan for a little bit. Over the past couple of weeks, it has been
an absolute blast watching him continue to learn and develop in the area of his
vocabulary. If pressed to choose my absolute favorite right now, it would have
to be hearing him say, "Bye-bye." The greatest part is that it's
always in context too. If we drop into Bethany's "office"/bedroom for
a quick visit, he'll always chime in with a quick "Bye-bye" when it's
time to leave. It's also a given that I get to hear that sweet, little
"Bye-bye" whenever it's time for Ethan to take a nap or go to bed.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention how "Bye-bye" is always accompanied by
a cute, little wave.
There are a plethora of other words Ethan likes to say as
well. "Hot", "Cracker", and "Cup" are becoming
pretty common. There are some that are less common though. For example,
"Pickle". One night as we were eating hamburgers for dinner, we
fished a dill pickle out of the jar and handed it to Ethan for a snack. Seconds
later, he was pointing at the jar and saying "Pickle" over and over
again. A rather similar story exists for "Bible". One evening, it was
time to get Ethan ready for bed and part
of that process includes reading a children's Bible to him. After so many
nights of us doing just that, now it's not uncommon to see Ethan proudly
holding his Bible aloft while saying, "Bible!".
The thing about words though is that there are times when
the right words will not come and you find yourself unable to do anything but
cry. For Ethan, that moment came last night.
With Bethany's sister and her family joining us for dinner
last night, we found ourselves spending a lot of the evening outdoors watching
the kids play. The main activity of the evening? Riding bicycles. As Ethan's
two cousins and his sister flew up and down the sidewalk on their bikes, Ethan
mainly played on our front steps while also taking tiny breaks to color with
sidewalk chalk. As the evening went on, he got a little braver and even managed
to climb on his cousin's bike for short little rides as one of the adults
pushed him around the driveway.
As the evening was coming to a close, Ellie and her cousin,
Elbert, decided to head up the street one last time. Elbert was on his bike
with Ellie sprinting after him as fast as she could on foot. Of course, if
Ellie is going somewhere, Ethan wants to go as well. Therefore, he began
toddling after his sister and older cousin as fast as he could go.
Unfortunately for Ethan, there was one final bike rider he neglected to take
into account as two-year-old Edmund came happily riding up the sidewalk behind
Ethan a little faster than he anticipated. As of right now, Edmund hasn't
really learned to stop his bike without help and unfortunately for Ethan, he
provided the help on this occasion.
Before we could even process what had happened, Ethan found
himself face down on the sidewalk with a scraped-up face and nose to show for
his efforts. As you can probably guess, Ethan didn't mince with words when
describing his pain. In fact, he went straight to screams. Blood-curdling
screams to be exact. Don't worry though. After some extended snuggles with both
Bethany and me, he was good as new...emotionally that is. Physical healing
might take just a little bit longer. #DaddyWrite
No comments:
Post a Comment