I don't think I've made a blog post specifically about my son. I have made reference to him on my posts I'm sure and I know I have left comments where I talked about him. He keeps his own blog on ActiveRain and if you haven't read any of it, check it out........he's a talented and gifted writer. I have resisted writing about him on my blog because he gets irritated if I step on his toes. For a 13 month old he can be a little feisty.
However, I wanted to share with you my perspective of our walk in downtown Seattle the other night. We had gone out to dinner with the ActiveRain crew to say goodbye to Jorgen. Jorgen is our lead developer on the Localism project and lives in Lawrence Kansas. We had him in town for a week and he was flying home the next day so we were having dinner to see him off. As 13 month olds often do, my son was getting a little restless in his high chair so i swooped him up and we headed outside to stretch it out a little bit.
He's been walking for about 3 months now but still acts like a drunken sailor on occassion. So when we got outside, we are standing on 3rd and Union in downtown Seattle. It's about 9:00pm (way past his bedtime) and I set the little guy down. Right away he takes off down the block. It's the normal hustle and bustle of a downtown street at 9:00pm on a monday evening. There are people walking by themselves, lost in their iPods, there are groups of people walking and laughing and chatting. There is the occasional shady character passing asking for change.........
The thing that struck me as odd is that my son had the exact same reactions to the people on the streets as I was having internally. He wasn't looking at me (so my body language or facial expression wasn't influencing him), he was focused down the street on wherever he thought he was headed. But each time we would pass a group of people, if I was thinking internally that the person looked a little shady, my son would stop, turn to find me, and hug my leg with a look of "you got my back, right dad?"
If the group of people we were passing was a group of three women (or anyone with a chatting and laughing, he would just walk right in front of them and flash a big huge grin, caring less if they planned on stopping or tromping right over the top of him. Of course, in every instance, the people would stop and engage him and he was happy as a clam. (it borders on disgusting......he is such a little attention fiend in public)
How the heck does a 13 month old little boy have the intuition to know what he should and shouldn't be concerned about?
Jon is convinced he is going to grow up to work with the FBI or the CIA.........at the very least, maybe he'll follow in Grandpa's footsteps and become a Seattle Police Officer.
Comments (23)Subscribe to CommentsComment