Sunday, March 13, 2005
My Wonderful Day
If you'd asked me at sunrise, I might have doubted that my day would be wonderful. After all, I'd had 5 hours of sleep, bifurcated by listening to Boo scream for an hour. When Max awoke shortly before 6:00, I was annoyed, and I became even more irritated when he roused Boo soon thereafter. My day turned the corner, though, when Lee put Boo in bed beside me while he showered. While I was still pretending to doze, Boo began to hum an unfamiliar tune: WHO hoo hoo, WHO hoo hoo, WHO hoo hoo. It took several minutes for me to recognize the pattern--he was singing a duet with the dove outside our bedroom window. Every time the dove would call out, Boo would respond in kind. WHO hoo hoo. WHO hoo hoo. By the time I got out of bed, I was smiling.
*****
We met our new 8-day old foal this morning. He and Max stand about eye to eye right now, but not for long. Judging from his performance in the turnout pen, our family has added another character to the menagerie. He ripped and raced around the pen at full tilt; he jumped stiff-legged into the air and twisted and skipped and spun and hopped; he went nose to nose with his momma as if she were a cow and he was trying to hold her. He was obviously having a ball with this whole business of being alive. The vet's wife was watching with us as we admired the little guy and laughed. "He's been like this since the minute he was born," she said. "As soon as he came out, he jumped straight in the air."
*****
At dinner this evening, Max blurted out, "Can you believe it? I'm growing, and I'm going to be a daddy just like you, daddy!" I asked Max what he'd like to do with his son when he became a daddy. "Share my toys. And eat macaroni and cheese. And throw him up high in the sky. And I'm going to call him Boo!" Lee asked, "What are you going to do if your son doesn't listen and do what you asked him to do?" Max thought for awhile in silence, clearly puzzled by Lee's question. Then he furrowed his brow and wagged a finger in Lee's direction, ""I'm going to tell him 'NO!' and then he's going to be a good listener." Tomorrow I'm going to remind Max of our conversation, and then I plan to put his suggestion to use.
*****
Boo needed a diaper change this evening but wasn't up for staying still. So Lee resurrected a tactic that had worked often with Max: singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" while juggling wipes and diaper cream and velcro and pj's. Lee lateralled Boo to me for hand-washing and teeth-brushing, and I took up the tune: "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands...." And Boo went "clap, clap" with his hands. Thinking this might be an accident or a fluke or an involuntary spasm, I continued: "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands...." "Clap, clap," went Boo. And so we continued, me singing and Boo responding on cue, in perfect rhythm. Evidently Boo was happy, and his mommy was, too.
*****
We met our new 8-day old foal this morning. He and Max stand about eye to eye right now, but not for long. Judging from his performance in the turnout pen, our family has added another character to the menagerie. He ripped and raced around the pen at full tilt; he jumped stiff-legged into the air and twisted and skipped and spun and hopped; he went nose to nose with his momma as if she were a cow and he was trying to hold her. He was obviously having a ball with this whole business of being alive. The vet's wife was watching with us as we admired the little guy and laughed. "He's been like this since the minute he was born," she said. "As soon as he came out, he jumped straight in the air."
*****
At dinner this evening, Max blurted out, "Can you believe it? I'm growing, and I'm going to be a daddy just like you, daddy!" I asked Max what he'd like to do with his son when he became a daddy. "Share my toys. And eat macaroni and cheese. And throw him up high in the sky. And I'm going to call him Boo!" Lee asked, "What are you going to do if your son doesn't listen and do what you asked him to do?" Max thought for awhile in silence, clearly puzzled by Lee's question. Then he furrowed his brow and wagged a finger in Lee's direction, ""I'm going to tell him 'NO!' and then he's going to be a good listener." Tomorrow I'm going to remind Max of our conversation, and then I plan to put his suggestion to use.
*****
Boo needed a diaper change this evening but wasn't up for staying still. So Lee resurrected a tactic that had worked often with Max: singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" while juggling wipes and diaper cream and velcro and pj's. Lee lateralled Boo to me for hand-washing and teeth-brushing, and I took up the tune: "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands...." And Boo went "clap, clap" with his hands. Thinking this might be an accident or a fluke or an involuntary spasm, I continued: "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands...." "Clap, clap," went Boo. And so we continued, me singing and Boo responding on cue, in perfect rhythm. Evidently Boo was happy, and his mommy was, too.
1 Comments:
That does sound like a wonderful day. I love Boo's musical pattern matching; it will be such fun to see how that develops as he grows. And how did the finger-wagging NO work today... or did you need it? That Lee, he is the clever one!
Foal photos? Please?
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