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humbled

my be-hoodied goof eating strawberries.
yesterday after school/work, john and i went to stride rite to get him some new shoes. my husband and i were beginning to suspect that his size 6.5 mediums were getting too small for him, and i just couldn't shake the memory of taking john in thinking he needed a 4.5 to discover he needed a 6. mom of the year moments right there.

stride rite is in the next town over in a direction john and i don't travel very often. in fact, i think the last time we were over that way was when we went to the balloon festival back in september.

so imagine my surprise as we were getting off the interstate when john said, "i see balloons here, mommy."

thinking he saw some balloons flying over a store or sometime, i said, "where, john? i don't see them."

and he said, "no, i see balloons here one day."

at this point i was a little amazed that he remembered the balloon festival at all. but his next words left no room for doubt.

"i see football balloon, and purple balloon, and eagle balloon ..."

as we discussed the balloons, i was struck by something even more amazing: not only did he remember seeing those balloons, but that memory was triggered by an exit off the interstate

so maybe john will have his daddy's innate ability to navigate - if my husband has ever been anywhere even once, he can find his way back pretty effortlessly. and maybe john will have my innate ability to associate places with memories - as i drive around town, i am flooded with memories of things that happened other times i was in this location, or that one.

or maybe this will develop into some other innate ability that i can't predict. but i know one thing for sure:

it is dumbfounding and humbling to watch this little man continue to hone his understanding of and appreciation for the world around him. how amazing are human beings - and how amazing is the privilege of helping him grow into an awesome one?

*   *   *

a little comic break: video of john and i playing the noise game. this was probably our third or fourth effort to record the game for grammie. so by the time he got to the end ... he was done. in a very cute way.








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