Silver Alert & Toddler God

Tuesday night: Stand at a red light waiting for the crosswalk. Pick a wedgie with one hand, wave to a family from church with the other.

That’s the story of my existence, in 2 sentences.

(Yea, I shouldn’t have picked a wedgie at a busy intersection, but I had been running and my shorts needed adjusting. And I had the cover of darkness. And I probably just shouldn’t be allowed to leave the house, ever.)

Silver Alert

We lunched at Chick-fil-a today (see list below for the humor there) and Beckett, my creative genius, turned the table topper into a hat.

It was funny or whatever I guess, but I didn’t think it was the cutest thing ever or even mentionable until this 90+ year old man came over to our table, grabbed Beckett’s french-fry-greased hand without saying a word to me, and paraded him around to every table in the restaurant.

“Look at this young man’s hat. Isn’t that a neat hat?”

It was very, very sweet.

And then he made a second lap.

And then a third.

(I would have gotten panicky, but I knew I could take him if he tried to make a run for it.)

So, to recap: a strange man made 3 laps around a restaurant to show off a table topper on my son’s head.

And you know what? It was precious. Beckett loved it, the old man loved it, and the other people loved it. (I think. I couldn’t see most of them all the way across the restaurant.)

I hope that when I’m old I’ll hijack some lady’s kid to make him feel special, too.

It was a big day for Great-Grandpa Walter and I hope he had loads more fun before the authorities found him and took him home.

Toddler God

Last night our 7th grade girls were answering the question, “What’s something you’ve learned about God recently?” And I had a surprising amount of things to say. If you’re the parent of small kids, you should have a lot to add to this discussion, too.

I’m constantly amazed at the world around us, as seen by and explained to a 2 year old.

When we go to the zoo, I’m all, “Beckett. That thing has stripes. STRIPES. Is that not the prettiest animal you’ve ever seen?!” or “That’s a rhino. That is the craziest, most dinosaur-like creature I’ve ever seen in real life.”

Or when I tell him about bugs. “So there’s a caterpillar who builds a cocoon and then somehow he becomes a butterfly. Wait…what? How does that happen? (yells across the house) TAYLOR – is this true about caterpillars turning into butterflies?! That’s nuts!!”

At what point do we lose our amazement? And why are we in such a hurry with our kids as they explore? “We don’t have time to stop and look at that flower right now. We have gymnastics  swim lessons  music class  laundry  grocery shopping  much more important things to do!”

Food for thought.

Anyway. I’ll leave you with a short list of my favorite things about having a toddler while being pregnant:

• peeing my pants during that one big jump at the trampoline park
• subjecting my impressionable toddler to hours upon hours of TV while I nap on the couch
• getting kicked in the uterus while wrestling 
• wrangling a toddler and myself in the bathroom stall of every public place we enter
• using the toddler as an excuse to buy candy at the checkout
• …and as an excuse to eat Chick-Fil-A every day
• receiving stickers every time I “pee pee on the potty” (126 times a day)
• hearing Beckett say “big bwudda!”
• Netflix

It’s just so different than the first time. So different.

The next list will be: Ways I Know Second Child Syndrome is Alive and Well