Curiouser and Curiouser

Field Research, originally uploaded by bburbank.

That’s you these days! Here you are at almost two years old peering through a magnifying glass at anything and everything. You’re so tall and little boyish in this picture and it’s amazing to think you were ever a baby. You’ve even got on light-up shoes!

You sit and make up stories for your hard rubber toys that you like so much. Your favorite game is “Monster!’ where you point and yell “Monster!” and we have to act scared and, if possible, run and hide with you while the monster (usually Leela) chases you. Sometimes, strangely, you do the same thing while saying “Goat!” (Your Dad thinks you mean ghost, but I think you actually mean goat. I took you to see goats and you didn’t seem thrilled by them.

You ask to hear music, especially the Yo Gabba Gabba soundtrack. You love to play the wiggle song and then FREEZE. You do a funny little run-in-place-and-waggle-your-wrists dance during the wiggle part. You also like the run in a circle song. You like to run…at the moment running away from me is your favorite and my least favorite. You’re so tall and fast and your hair is so long and curly. You like to watch Sesame Street and you played your first Nintendo Wii game, the Nihao Kai Lan game. You love to go see the manatee at the Deltona Public Library. It’s your favorite place. You push every button in the interactive nature museum and point out every animal. You are really enamored with all animals at the moment. You like to act out animals, especially elephant, cat, lion, and sometimes you throw in monster. That’s my favorite.

Today is the day before your second birthday party. As usual, I went overboard. Your Dad is probably frustrated with me. I tend to set overly high party expectations that are impossible to meet. Hopefully your birthday cake turns out ok. The first attempt was a disaster that crumbled into a billion pieces. I know you won’t remember the cake, but you’ll have pictures and I think, in some way, you’ll know that I wanted to make it special for you. You are excited about your birthday and have seemed to learn what a birthday means. You didn’t want to go to bed tonight because you knew a birthday party (whatever that means to you, exactly) was imminent.

You were running around in the backyard this afternoon, sort of caught up in your own little world and I just stood there and watched you, amazed. I admit I started crying…not because I was sad, really, though time’s quickness is a little painful. Mostly I was overwhelmed with pride. You looked so confident and carefree running around, kicking at the grass, hiding behind a tree and yelling out peek-a-boo. I was just so suddenly struck by your you-ness, as stupid as that sounds. You’re just your own little person, curious and fascinated and filled with joy by the world around you and that makes me so crazily proud of you. Looking back on that statement in twenty years when you’re worried about money or school or your future career and what you have or haven’t accomplished, you might think that moment extremely trivial, but maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s the best sort of pride. Unconditional. Astounding. Simple. True.

Happy Birthday number two, Jho.