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June 24, 2008

The Boy Who Broke My Heart

It happened yesterday, as I was headed out the door for the airport. Literally. I had my backpack/carryon in one hand and the case with all my clothes and toiletries in the other, when my sweet, sweet nephew grabbed one of his favorite books, which I had read to him earlier in the afternoon, and ran up to me with it. So I could read it to him. I almost cried, because at that moment, I would have loved nothing better than to sweep him up in my arms, snuggle down into an easy chair with him and hold him on my lap while he opened and closed all of the little doors on the pages.

I compromised. I took the book and thanked him and herded him out the door to the car, where, once everybody was strapped in, I read it to him. He was in his carseat in the back, and I was twisted practically in half, trying to make the book accessible for him from my place in the front passenger seat, so it wasn't the most comfortable I've ever been when doing something with the Boy, but at least I got to share the book with him before I left.

This is the second time my heart's been broken by this particular fellow. The first time was in March when I went down to Boise for part of spring break, and my last interaction with him was him running into my arms at full speed for a wonderful, full body, toddler hug. He's such a great little boy, and it seems every trip he makes me one of his go-to people on the last day. Though this time he warmed up to me faster than on previous visits. Maybe it's because it hasn't been as long this time. Maybe it's because he's getting older and actually remembers me from before. Whatever the reason, I was tickling his leg and he was laughing at me after we'd been in the car maybe ten minutes on Friday, which was a much better reception than the last time, when he saw me walking out of my parents' guest room and burst into tears and screaming.

But that's not what you're here for. You're here for the pictures. And I don't blame you. I took lots this time around--lots of good ones, even--so I'm going to do this over a couple of entries. This set is from our visit to the zoo on Monday.

I only got shots of the Boy at three exhibits, but the pics are kind of fun, I think. (At some of the exhibits, I was holding him, so it wasn't really possible to do the photography as well. And for others, he was in his stroller and that just doesn't lend itself to photogenia.)

Meeting Meerkats

The meerkats were fascinated by him, but he wasn't all that interested in them. His longest two visits were at the tortoise setup and the tiger cage. He kept running back to the tortoises for another look, I'm not sure why they interested him so much, but they did. And he spent a lot of time watching the tigers. (Takes after his auntie already. Good boy!)

Turtles

What's in There?

(That ball, by the way? Went all around the zoo with him. He didn't let it out of his sight, though he did occasionally drop it when he got excited.)

Tiger

I was a bit stunned by just how big the tiger was when compared to the toddler. Especially since it got up shortly after we arrived and lunged its face toward the glass at a little girl who had been standing there looking. She jumped back, as did I. But it was pretty amazing to have it lie down right there in front of the window after it made a leisurely circuit of the enclosure.

Lounging Tiger, Roaring Todder

Kieran was imitating a bunch of other kids who decided that's the noise that tigers make. He so enjoyed making it that he kept on long after all of the other children had stopped. And he kept trying to get other kids to roar with him. As you may be able to tell from the above photo, he really got into the roaring.

Mom took us to the zoo, and made a picnic lunch to enjoy afterward. It was a really lovely day, we were all in good moods and just enjoying the hell out of each other's company.

Couple of Freshly Hatched Looney Birds

And then, after the zoo, the picnic. I think Kieran was getting an ice cube here. I just love the look on his face.

He's like a sponge. He notices everything. Music, behavior, birds, puddles, planes, the whole world around him gets absorbed. So much is going in right now, I'm really curious to see how it reworks itself inside his head.

Posted by sally at June 24, 2008 09:48 PM

Comments

Posted by: HollowSquirrel at June 26, 2008 10:50 AM

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