Car Alarms
Sixteen months. And at this delicious moment in time, aside from his burgeoning independence, there is nothing Henry loves more than car alarms.
heeee hawww heee hawww
heeee hawww heee hawww
His face lights up. Are we that lucky that we have encountered the noise of a car alarm in the distance? Like we do every day?
booooooop!
booooooop!
booooooop!
booooooop!
He looks at me and smiles. He starts stepping from foot to foot with straight legs, flat-soled sandals slapping the pavement.
enh enh enh enh
enh enh enh enh
He grabs his own hands in front of his chest, elbows jutting, and moves his fist left to right.
Booing?
Booing?
Booing?
Booing?
The fabulousness of the car alarm is simply too intense to enjoy alone. He grabs my hand. We are reveling together in dance!
Forget spreading our genes around to others — this is why we have children: the ability to share in unbridled joy at what would otherwise be either ignored, or construed as an annoyance.
Plus, at this stage, he is eager to communicate, but can’t yet speak the language. There is an intensity and a beauty to this somewhat thwarted desire to connect. We pay a lot of attention to one another, trying to figure things out. It’s as fabulous as going on vacation in your twenties and meeting a goddamn dark-eyed foreigner! Except, much better.
To top it off, this morning during the our walk, a bird way up in a sycamore started imitating the car alarm as soon as it had finished.
Excellent bird. It must be a parent bird, hamming it up for its kiddo. Or maybe it’s a baby bird with a very proud mama.
Church Avenue Chomp 
Laughing, crying, and needing to pee: that’s me, reading this entry. So sweet and so funny. When Vivian was about that age we sang our first song together, sitting face to face on the couch, eyes locked: Baby Beluga. The sweetness almost killed me, probably made me invincible. Amen.
The joy of the dance! No matter where we are or what the beat my 2 year old will start bobbing his head and doing that body sway thing to anything that even comes close to a rhythm. Yesterday’s toilet toons as a rest stop up 684 left him twirling in the bathroom until he toppled over. Then he laughed with a smile that brought a room of strangers of their knees. Rope me in little man.