If you have kids, sometimes you find yourself just staring at them for no obvious reason, but questions run through your mind: How did that stain get on your shirt? Did I give you allowance? Why did you DO that? Your mind has important things it wants to say to them…but the words never leave the brain.
The boys catch me staring at them sometimes. They look puzzled, embarrassed. “What are you looking at?” they ask.
“What’s that stain on your shirt?”
Which is really code for: “When did you grow up? Did I blink and miss it?”
Last night I took the boys to swim practice. E practiced, J decided he just wanted to play in the pool. He wanted to play catch with me so he could dive in the water after the ball. After a little of that, he went off on his own. I stared at him moving about the pool.
J was walking normally around the deck when suddenly and for no apparent reason he happily leaped into the air. It was a one-legged hop, followed by a two-legged leap. Then he started walking normally again.
Boys don’t simply walk. They hop, they leap, they run. Sometimes they do this little hippity hop, tiptoe run when they’re barefoot, kind of like they’re walking on hot coals.
You never see them do this when they’re older. Older boys and grown men don’t hop and leap about as they move through their daily lives. Maybe they break into a run every now and then, but that’s about it.
But little boys move whatever way they want to get from point A to point B, whether they skip, they hop, they slide into home. They’re all limbs flailing about, shooting imaginary basketballs into the air, playing air guitar, pretending to walk along an imaginary rope bridge high above a dangerous gulch.
And then--in the blink of an eye, while you’re busy staring at them--they walk. And all those times you’ve told them to stop jumping up and down, slow down, walk; don’t run…you almost curse yourself now for even suggesting that they walk normally.
But at least for now, while they’re still leaping and dancing…the good thing is, they’re probably not even listening to you.
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4 comments:
Stop it Carey, I want to cry.
My little boy is now 6'9 and doesnt hop much either.
I know a couple adults who still hop and skip around. They are VERY annoying.
Would if I could, Krissy.
Mike, I'm guessing you're one of them? You run, so technically, you've still got some boy left in you.
awwww Carey! There ya go getting me all teary eyed! It all goes by so very fast. Next thing you know you're a grandparent and you just never blink.
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