Nostalgia, Imagination, and the Joy of Breaking the Rules

My Lil Diva is Finding Nemo obsessed.

Every fish is pointed at with exclamations of “Nemo!” Unless it’s fat and blue. Then it is “Dori!”

She searches for him in books.

She finds him in decorative plates hanging on the walls of a restaurant.

The smile. The elation.

It’s like a glimpse of her future – only replace Nemo with boy bands.

* * *

The Tackler is highly open to suggestions. He takes these, warps them, and what springs forth are some hilarious imaginings.

Random Tackler photo - because I didn't have my camera at the park.

One day PBS aired a Curious George and The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That episode with characters shrinking and going inside the body.

He is now fascinated with the concept.

Monday night as a evening breeze blew over us – feeling more like the hot air from a furnace – my son was in full imagination mode. My husband and I had to perform various jumps to shrink ourselves so we could go explore the insides of the plastic dinosaurs there.

“We need to go in its throat and follow the signs.”

Who can argue with that logic?

* * *

Everything is chompable, courtesy of teething.

The Lil Diva has been “off” the last few days. Her appetite is diminished. She whines. She doesn’t nap or sleep well. She cries at the drop of a hat. She clings in facehugger mode.

She’s cutting her two year molars.

Yes, send prayers our way.

The distraction technique with the highest success is reading books. Her favorite books.

Who Hops?

Dinosaur Roar!

Anything with Buzz or Nemo.

She cackles at the pictures with an evil “Hahaah!” – her voice too deep for a 23 month old.

Today as I practiced counting with her, she stabbed her finger onto the page.

“Fee-go! Fee-go!”

Her word for “flamingos” never fails to crack me up when said with such enthusiasm.

* * *

We attended a birthday pool party on Sunday night.

It had a small water slide.

The exact layout of the slide and pool

The rules about height, swimming skill, and life jackets? Not enforced.

This brought about the rare occasion for not one, but both of my children to try out a water slide.

First up: The Tackler.

He can sort of swim. When he wants to. Most often though, he gives up and goes into the inefficient “doggie paddle” mode.

So either I or my husband was at the bottom, waiting to catch him (the other with Lil Diva).

Oh. My. God.

The smiles.

The laughs.

The joy.

The boy was in heaven.

Then the strangest thing happened.

Lightning in the distance – in a place it has only rained once at since January.

We were kicked out of the pool and devoured cake to pass the time.

The kids filled up on sugar (all of them), waiting for the time to pass, as the cell skirted to the east of us.

Then back to the slide.

Lil Diva really wanted to try.

They didn’t enforce the “only one at a time” rule if it was a parent with a toddler.

I climbed the steps with her. It didn’t take long, there were only a dozen or so. And it was our turn.

I put her between my legs as we sat, the water pushing us out and we curved around in the sharp circle – a snail shell.

At the last moment I lifted her, so she didn’t crash under the deep water.

My husband tells me her grin was a sight to behold.

Again. And again. And again.

Up the stairs. Down the slide. Often her cries echoed around me.

“Whoohoo! Whoohoo!”

Sometimes I let her splash underwater a bit.

I have a bruise on my right ankle where it kept hitting the side of the slide.

But her joy – totally worth it.

It was the first time she was truly happy all weekend.

* * *

Yes, I know these aren’t my usual snarky “tacklerisms”, but I find myself a bit nostalgic. Lil Diva just hit the 23 month mark and soon, my youngest’s age will no longer be measured via “months” but “years”. It doesn’t seem right only two years ago I was cursing the hottest Texas summer on record while she kicked my bladder….