Are you familiar with a “trust fall”?
It’s an exercise in camaraderie, falling blindly backwards and trusting that a partner will catch you. You’ve been doing that a lot lately, but jumping forward off couches, stairs, chairs or any other sources of height and toward an unsuspecting parental target. We often struggle to catch a limb and prevent injury.
Last week, you took a real leap of faith from the stairwell. I was at the bottom of it, communicating with your sister upstairs, behind you. Though you were directly in front of me, I didn’t expect the jump and didn’t react quickly enough to the blur of nudity flying at me. You bounced squarely off the center of my chest and nailed the floor. You looked up at me sad about the “owie” and disappointed by my lack of reflex. I think I looked back at you in shock like “WTF was that?” and “How did you expect me to make that catch?”
We then practiced counting off a jump to give your next victim a chance at making a save.
That scenario is a pretty good example of who you are at this stage: Naked and unafraid.
You’re mostly naked because you are potty trained. Hooray! Your Mom and I took a long weekend trip to Park City and my mom, Grandma Vicki, took care of you and Eliza. You were on the cusp of potty training before we left and Grandma got the job done. To ensure you keep the momentum, we keep you naked or at least bottomless and you seem to make it to the bathroom whenever nature calls. The nudity is a little cruel in the middle of winter, but all is fair in love and potty training.
You’re into all the “boy stuff” right now like wrestling, trucks and drinking beer. Kidding. We don’t let you drink beer. But you can bring me one from the fridge. Thank you.
You’re also into puzzles and have a real vision for seeing how the pieces fit. We are working on a 200-piece puzzle for ages 6+ and you’re getting pieces to fit as quickly as your Mom and me. We started you on some extra-large, 25-piece floor puzzles and you memorized them after a week so we moved you up to the smaller-piece table puzzles. You are crushing it. You celebrate every time you can get a piece to fit. You seem less impressed when the puzzle is complete. I get it. The small wins can be more important than completing the big job.
Life will throw you some puzzles and you’re building the skill set and patience to manage through them. Mom and I will keep getting you bigger puzzles. too.
Love, Dad