Jhonen and His Blue Balloon.

Jho and his blue balloon., originally uploaded by bburbank.

Yesterday Jhonen and I went to the grocery store. In line, as usual, Jhonen bewitched the grocery clerks with his big blue eyes and the clerk asked if he could have a balloon. A million Mom thoughts ran through my head. Should a ten month old have a balloon? What if he’s allergic to latex? What if it pops in his face? What if it floats away and he gets mad? He’ll just want to suck on it…is that bad? Still, I said he could have it. What Mom doesn’t want free entertainment for her kid at the grocery store, even if it only lasts for a few minutes.

The older gentleman bagger went to guest services and returned with a blue Publix balloon and Jhonen was transfixed. He stared at it floating and bobbing in the air and got a huge grin on his face. I tied the blue string to the side of the cart and he reached for it and pulled it close. To my surprise, he didn’t immediately put his mouth on it, but stared at it and held it. I got distracted by the groceries and finding the car in the parking lot, so I didn’t notice until I reached the car that he was clutching the string in his right hand with his left arm around the balloon holding it in a hug. For some reason this was one of the sweetest, most adorable thing I’d ever seen him do. It was just one of those amazing Mom moments. I realized that all my worries and fears almost stopped me from giving him this little treasure. I realized the joy of providing not just the necessities of life to a child, but the happiness and fascination of everything the world has to offer. I realized how much fun it will be to experience even the silliest of little moments with him, to see a balloon in a new way….his way.

It’s funny, because one of my best memories of Leela involved a balloon, too. Ben and I had returned home with her as a six-week-old puppy and Ben’s Mom had brought by an It’s a Girl balloon to celebrate her arrival. Leela took great interest in the balloon and was sort of excited by, yet fearful of it. The next thing I knew, she had the balloon string in her mouth and was tearing around the apartment with it swinging wildly behind her. She had arrived, all right!

It sort of illustrates their personalities, too. Leela confronted that scary balloon, then conquered it. A job well done. Leela, our determined, stubborn, obsessive, happy dog celebrated with her proud victory lap.The minute I got Jhonen in his car seat and handed him the balloon, he grabbed it and all the way home I watched him bopping it and flailing it around in the rearview mirror. His blue balloon showed him at his tenderest cuddliest clutchiest sweetest best and then at his silliest rowdiest destructive exploringest, too.