(Very) Short Stories from the Life of Spencer

Chapter 5: June

Last night, I was rocking Spencer before putting him down to bed. He reached up to take his pacifier out of his mouth in order to insert his sippy cup. Right before he got the cup to his mouth, he reached up with one hand, grabbed my chin, turned it so I was facing him squarely, pulled it down to him, and gave me a big kiss right on the mouth! I was shocked. I'm beginning to understand how moms "fall in love" with their sons, one ridiculously precious kiss at a time. I'm going to risk sounding obnoxious and say that I'm not sure you can know how I felt unless you have your own son. And now, I'm going to take it all the way to ridiculously annoying and say that you can't truly know how I felt unless your son is as beautiful, charming, and sweet as Spencer. So, if I lost you amidst all the gushing, let's sum up and say it was such a sweet moment, and I know he'll be so embarrassed to read about it someday (but hopefully later, he'll outgrow that phase and fully own up to his shameless and whole-hearted love for his mother).

Spencer has discovered his Gigi and Papa's shower. He loves it, and I really can't blame him. It has 3 (or more?) different shower heads and nozzles, plus it's big, AND he gets to play with their shampoo bottles! Really good times were had this particular evening. Apparently by neglecting family shower time, we are really missing out.

In the "likes vs. dislikes" column, I will add that Spencer has always hated having the sun in his eyes, ever since he was an infant. I used to joke that it was because he was a December baby and didn't see the sun for many months after his entrance into the world. I bought him sunglasses last summer, thinking it would solve all of his car seat woes involving the sun shining in his eyes. The sun-canopy on his infant seat never stood a chance against his seek-and-destroy instincts. He ripped it off during every car ride starting around 4 or 5 months. I gave up re-attaching it around 6 or 7 months. I tried the sunglasses again this spring, and he still would have none of it. But now, he has finally come to his senses, and he has started to understand that if he will delay immediately ripping off the glasses when we put them on him, then they will keep the sun from obstructing his vision. Gap had an additional 40% off their clearance items in the store yesterday, so I got him a pair of sunglasses for his other car seat (are we THOSE Americans or what?). When I looked at my receipt after I'd checked out, I literally laughed out loud (in the mall by myself). It said "Kanye Sunglasses." So, hopefully pictures to follow. For right now, we just have the more caucasian Fisher Price version in digital form.

Spencer has really embraced the idea of "family time." When both Jonathan and I are at home, he strongly prefers we all be in the same room together as much as possible. If he's happily playing and one of us walks out, he will generally give it a minute or two to see if we are coming back, and if we don't he comes to retrieve us. He especially likes to coerce Jonathan and me to stand in Jonathan's very small closet with him, with the door closed. I'm not sure at what point this will get old to him. I have never stayed in there long enough to find out, and I'm usually a pretty good sport about those things. It reminds me of the eternal question "How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop." I just can't stand in the stuffy closet with all 3 of us past a few minutes. Life is too short. I'm sure he'll understand someday. As of today, he doesn't really understand.

Regarding his growth, I have no idea what he weighs or how tall he is, but it seems like he got an inch taller in a couple of days. His rompers seem to back me up. Multiple people have commented this week on how they look "almost" too small. That basically means, "Why did you squeeze your poor child into that automatic wedgie device?" Point taken.

Spencer has been LOVING to run away from us so that we have to chase him. It's not so much out of any strong desire to avoid what we want him to do. He just loves the "thrill of the chase." He holds his arms up in the air, but bends his elbows, and runs dramatically by pulling his knees up as high as he can with each step. And just giggles with sheer glee. He especially loves it when we get right up to whatever door he has put between himself and us, so he can close the door right in our face as we try to enter. He's not mad or really trying to keep us out. When we open the door he just laughs even more. Obviously we should play chase more often, although I feel like we play it constantly.

Spencer's G-Daddy is retiring at the end of the month, and we went to his retirement luncheon at the VA. It's always hospitals and nursing homes where your child is automatically obsessed with the floor-coverings. They also become inexplicably incapable of holding onto their paci or sippy cup. All that aside, it was so fun to go to G-Daddy's work. We are proud of his hard work, and we are excited for all the free time he's going to have to take Spencer fishing!

Today, a very nice salesman at Sears told Spencer "No" (out of fear) when he saw Spencer reach for an outlet box (that comes up from the floor) before I did. Just for the record I was standing inches from Spencer and had my hand on him approximately 3/10th of a second before he reached for it. Jonathan was standing right beside us as well. Spencer got his feelings or his pride hurt so profoundly that he paused, stuck out that bottom lip, made a horrible face and then cried LOUDLY for at least 3 or 4 minutes straight (which is a long time for your child to cry loudly in public with no reprise). Finally, Jonathan just had to walk him away from me and the salesman. I kept feeling the need to apologize to the salesman (is that co-dependent or what?), and I continued to assure him that I was very glad he said "No" when it involved an electrical outlet, and that I was so sorry. The salesman was sorry he had upset Spencer. Now that I've typed it out it definitely reads like a non-issue. It felt big at the time. Somehow it was all just a little much for me today, emotionally speaking--some days I just have more "reserve" than others.

Spencer' s cousin from Alabama is in town this week, and she came to our house today. I wish I could describe how excited he was to see and play with her. It was precious. He dragged her all around his house. Showed her his toys, and mostly just smiled, squealed, laughed, and marveled at her presence in our home, all the while reveling in any attention she bestowed upon him. She's been waiting years for this. Of course, after 3 hours of such intense happiness he had totally exhausted himself. He cried and screamed for little to no reason for what felt like a long time (but probably really wasn't) until we put him to bed at 6:30. Audrey kept asking when he was going to wake up from his nap. I kept explaining that it is actually night time (even though the sun looks like it's noon), and that he was going to sleep until tomorrow morning. To which she replied, "He's going to sleep all day today AND all night?" Clearly, my explanation of it being night even though it's still light outside during the summer left something to be desired.

When I was getting myself all ready for bed tonight, I realized that the receiver to Spencer's monitor is nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere I could for tonight, and I'll do a little more scouring tomorrow morning. It was definitely here this morning, and that's really all I can say for sure. We're hoping he didn't put it in the trash can, because Jonathan did take the trash out tonight. If you're curious, yes, we can hear him just fine if he's crying, but we use it if we go outside and also to hear if he's talking in his crib, which can mean he has a dirty diaper depending on how long he talks before falling asleep--you do NOT want to see his bottom when we've accidentally let him sleep in a dirty diaper.

That about wraps up a couple of days' worth of Spencer short stories. Here's hoping to discovering where he's hidden his monitor tomorrow!