It seems to me, in these days of toddlerhood, that our little one is constantly hurdling himself into situations we deem death-defying without a care in the world. He climbs tall objects and stands on the precipice of huge ledges and then laughs at me when I rush over. He not-so-slyly eyes 100 lb. possibly tippable pieces of furniture then shoves them with his fist while standing directly below them. He trusts me to catch him when he falls, and on the rare occasion I’m not there or paying attention, he’ll still go stepping off in his haphazard fashion anyway. Falling, crying, and then recovering in about 10 seconds because, I guess, it’s teaching him something. In the same minute he can be completely shut down in fear by our blender, the old grumpy man in “UP,” or the creepy puppet Mark is for some reason keeping on our bookcase.
Toddlers think alike, at least some of them. Liam’s best buddy is a sweet little guy named Enzo who is just 4 months older than him. Enzo and Liam think alike, talk alike, walk alike, cry alike. When they are together the rest of the world disappears and things sometimes get very quiet. Because they understand each other, and communicate wordlessly, and long periods pass where Enzo’s mama Ozzie and I will have enough of a break to start enjoying our beers before we realize from the silence that something might be terribly wrong. We rush to find out what’s going on only to discover they are working together to move furniture across the room or make some insane sticky mess with an apple on the floor.
I was tempted to title this posting “Irrational Fear of Santa.” But now I see it. Santa is seriously scary. We didn’t tell Liam we were going to the mall to meet Santa, but if we had, and if Liam had discussed what that meant with his buddy Enzo in their garbled toddler talk, he would have flatly refused to get in the car. Here’s what I think Liam’s interpretation of our Santa experience went like:
“I am with my mommy all day long! I love mommy. Some days daddy is home too and that is even better because I love daddy too! Today we are going to a mall with lots of people. I saw a bird on the way over here, that was so great. I love birds! There are a lot of people here! We are lining up outside a little red house and there are other little people and we are next to a playground and this is SO FUN! And now the door is opening! Yay!
Wait a second. They’ve shut both doors behind me and also in front and my daddy is handing money to some guy with a big flashy bulb. Where is my mama? And there is a fat man in a red suit on some kind of pedestal and he is holding out his arms and wants to TAKE ME! Why isn’t my mama picking me up?? Oh no!! My daddy is selling me to Santa Claus! MAMA! MAMA! How could they do this? I am so cute? How could mommy not see how cute I am?!?! Now I am remembering all the babies that went in one door to this little red house and never came back out!! And why is mommy not saving me? Everyone is laughing and this big scary man is trying to tuck me into his giant belly where he will surely EAT ME! OH GOD! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!”