For Emrick’s birthday last month, I asked Marcus to pick up a helium birthday balloon when he went to the grocery store the morning of the party. He got a really cute, clear balloon with writing on it, and it was nice and big. You may recall glimpsing it in some of the pics from Pookie’s birthday:
Well, it’s 36 days later, and that balloon is STILL going strong. Sure, it’s filled with lots of wrinkles and dents now (36 days in the life of a helium balloon is like, 85 years in human time), but that old bag still floats to the ceiling, God bless her.
Check it out:
Hmm. Looking back at that picture from Emrick’s birthday, I realize that I’d forgotten the balloon was actually round at one time. I think I had come to wrongly remember that it (she?) had always been sort of flat and m&m-shaped, even when fully inflated. But nope. That balloon was a full, smooth, round ball in its youth.
But I digress.
I moved the balloon into the playroom weeks ago, and for a long time Emrick didn’t pay much attention to it. Once in a while he would seem to notice it when he happened to be looking up for some other reason, but he didn’t show much curiosity about it. But then, one night a few days ago, Marcus and I were playing with Emrick in that room, and Marcus pulled the balloon down from the ceiling, and put the string in Emrick’s hand. Emrick looked back and forth between his hand and the balloon and grinned. What’s funny is that he held his arm in the air while holding the balloon, as if he himself were making it float. Then he let go and watched it rise, all the while still grinning. But even after the balloon landed, he maintained his vertical reach, and whimpered a little when the balloon wouldn’t respond. Marcus retrieved it for him, and the whole sequence played out again. And again. And a few more times.
Cute enough, right? But here’s the cutest part. After Marcus and I got tired of getting Emrick’s balloon for him over and over again, Emrick began to hold other toys up above his head, and then he would let go, expecting, I assume, that the toy would float to the ceiling just like the balloon did. About four times, he grabbed various small blocks, etc. that happened to be within his reach on the floor, and held them high, watching the ceiling expectantly as he released the item, only to have it fall to the floor, sometimes grazing his forehead as it made its way down. And despite the failed blast-off each time, he always looked delighted rather than disappointed…
I died of excessive cuteness intake. If only we’d been able to get it on video.
Anyway, last night I took a pic of Emrick reaching for the balloon, as well as pics of him walking around in his cute monster pj’s. So enjoy!
And finally, a picture of Emrick sleeping in his crib this morning:
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Floating in the Summer sky. 99 Pook Balloons go by…
I hope you have recovered from your “overdose” – wish I could have been there. BTW, we are working on a gate arrangement for our stairs.
We’re also working on a gate arrangement, for our meth lab.
I have an open gate policy. Darling story. Would have loved video. Don’t you know you are supposed to keep a video camera at the ready at ALL times?
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I know! The problem is that as soon as the camera comes out, Emrick becomes transfixed by it, and all the cuteness stops. Maybe if we videotaped him constantly, he would just get used to it and act normally!