Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Gramma Caryn's walk with da'Boy


I have to tell you all about my experience while in Virginia helping Michelle after Jordan was born. My
job was to take care of and entertain Jared. At 20 months old, Jared knows what he wants and is perfectly
capable of doing whatever it is that he wants to do. At 20 months he doesn't talk much yet, but gets his
message across simply by pointing and saying a very emphatic "Ehh..."

Jared loves to be outside but is not old enough to be outside by himself. So one day while I was there, I
took Jared for a walk. He wanted to take his police car, which he can either sit on and ride, or get
behind and push. We went down the driveway and then Jared was (literally) off and running, pushing his
police car down the sidewalk. I had to run to catch up with him. I had intended to take a walk around the
block with him, but Jared had other ideas. I the end of the block, he wanted to cross the street to the
stairway into the park and walking paths through the woods that meander through the middle of Michelle and Ken's development. So down we went into the woods.

Jared knows where every stream is in the woods and he made sure he went to every one of them so he could throw stones into the water. In a very short time he had me so lost that I had no idea where I came into the woods, so I had to rely on Jared to get us out, which he did. Only he got us out onto a different
street than the one we went into the woods on, so I still had no idea how to get back to Michelle's. I
followed Jared. We went up into a cul-de-sac and went up to a house where Jared pointed at the doorbell
(ehh!! ehhh!) indicating I should ring the doorbell.

Wow!! I hoped that whoever answered the door would know Jared, because I didn't know whose house we were at. The lady of the house answered the door and said hello to Jared (to my relief), who just walked into the house and headed for the kitchen where he pointed at one of the cabinets. Nana (I learned her name later) opened the cabinet door and gave Jared some cookies and he was ready to leave again. When we got down to the end of the street, Jared turned around to go back to Nana's house. He hadn't had enough cookies and needed a few more. Nana told me how to get back to Michelle's house from there, but when we got to the end of the street where we were supposed to turn right, Jared wanted to go left, and since I couldn't carry both Jared and his police car, I didn't really know where I was to go back for the police car if I left it, I followed Jared again. And again we went back to the woods and threw stones in the streams in the woods. I figured eventually, I would find my way out of the woods, and I had no idea how long we were out there, but I knew we were out for a long time.

Eventually, Ken's mother, Carla, who Michelle had called because she was beginning to worry about us,
found us and lead us out of the woods onto the street where Ken and Michelle live. Was I relieved!!! From that point on, I never took Jared out unless he was in a stroller, but I am still amazed at (1) how well that little guy knows his way around, (2) what a strong arm he has (he'll probably be a star pitcher by the time he can play T-ball at 4 or 5 years old), and (3) the stamina and physical endurance and strength he has for a 20 month old little boy (he ran most of the 3-1/2 hours we were out in the woods).

Jordan has a much different personality, and is much more placid than Jared is, so by the time she gets to
be Jared's age, I'm hoping for playing house and school.

Caryn

 
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