Julia, you said: 'Dad, me and Aidan want to put on a rock show upstairs. Can you paint our faces like Kiss? I want to be the kitty and Aidan wants to be the one with the long tongue!'
Heck yeah, I can!
And HECK YEAH to you and Aidan for wanting to ROCK AND ROLL all night and PARTY EVERY DAY!
You guys are amazing rock stars, amazing actors, amazing imagine-ers, and I hope you never lose that confidence to dream big and creatively express yourselves!
What happened next was some pure magic, made entirely by you!
Your Mom and I love how complicated you are. You are into bugs and getting dirty and muddy, but you hate for your clothes to be wet (one drop of water may make you want to strip nekked, rather than be slightly wet). You love to be rough and tumbly, but are also super sensitive and love beautiful things like nail polish, girls, beautiful walking, and flowers...always flowers.
You stop to smell the roses, literally, and can be very introspective; but you are also very very silly.
Two recent memorable conversations really help illuminate some of the many sides of you.
The other day you and I had a conversation that went something like this:
Me: Aidan, how was your day at school?
Aidan: Poo-poo.
Me: Come on! How was school?
Aidan: Poo-poo.
Me: Okay okay...with NO poo-poos, how was school.
You stopped to think. A long-ish thoughtful silence. A cheeky grin emerged.
Aidan: Pee-pee!
See? Silly, clever, and hilarious! (though your mother has trained me not to laugh too hard at such 'potty humor'...but it was a very nice loophole you found, and that deserved and got a huge laugh.)
This situation quickly turned into a crazy tickle-and-laugh festival.
But, this morning you were much more thoughtful.
I recently found this long-lost magnet under the oven and plopped it up on the dishwasher.
It's a Picasso painting called "The Old Guitarist"...and we have it in Magnet form!
I was getting ready to leave for work for the day when you took me by the hand and said "Dad, come here! I have to show you something!" We walked hand-in-hand to the dishwasher, where you sat down and I crouched down next to you.
You pointed at the magnet and tried to collect your thoughts, which were clearly very big, as it took you a few moments to say what you wanted to say.
Aidan: "Dad, see? When you get older and older and you will play the guitar like this. You have a beard, and you look like a grandpa. And you'll play the guitar."
Pretty deep right? You weren't necessarily concerned about me being old and playing guitar, but you were definitely very pensive about it; you'd been studying this magnet for a while and wanted to show me. Even your sister's interjection (Julia: "When I get older, I'll be a skeleton!") just further complicated your thoughts...
Aidan: "Mom will you be a skeleton too?"
But then, the deep thoughts quickly evaporated and turned into what you both wanted to be for Halloween (there was talk of ghosts, skeletons, princesses and snow monsters).
But the depth of your thoughts just amazed me.
I love how multi-faceted and darn right human you are. There are many sides to you, and I never want you to shy away from showing us any of them. You can always share your silliness and pensiveness, fragility and strength with us my son.
But, judging from the photos I found on my phone after your 'session' with it, I don't think we have to worry about you not revealing your many, many sides any time soon.
I love your happy side, and your sad side; your silly side and your sad side. Even when I'm an old white-bearded skeleton man, I'll always be happy to sit with you- with or without guitar- and just listen to your thoughts.
Kids, we had a jam-packed, super-growth, awesome first-time, duperdy super weekend with you. Just the right medicine for a case of the Mondays. I keep looking back at our photos and videos of all the fun we had this weekend and smiling. You both are so lively, and interesting, and fun that you really are keeping your mother and me busy...and surprised...and young.
We started off Friday night by actually ditching both of you (and Brady) with Mimi and Pops while we went out to dinner. Only one photo exists of this fateful evening.
Mimi and Pops were never heard from again.
Then on Saturday morning, it was so beautiful outside that, after a rocking morning of playing , Aidan you and I went for a bike ride while Julia napped.
You wanted me to keep going faster and faster; which was awful, because my legs felt like jelly.
We made a few pit stops: one at a playground on the far side of White Rock Lake, where you had the most fun swinging that I think you've ever had. You just laughed and laughed at the apex of each of your swings.
We made another pit stop that required you to lose your shorts for a while, but that's okay because accidents happen. But nothing was going to stop us from finishing our bike ride around the lake, partially because we're super adventurous awesome guys; but mostly because we were pretty much as far away from home as we could get and needed to get home.
So we took off, checked out the waterfall and then kept on pushing forward until I realized that you were no longer singing "Let it Be" or the alphabet to me...so I pulled over and discovered that you'd checked out:
Later that day, after a birthday party and before Julia woke up from her nap, I took you, son, on an awesome adventure to the music store!
The first thing you wanted to see were the pianos. And the store delivered. You played every single piano in the store. We even spoke to Mommy on the phone and you told her "There are pianos!"
And then...we found the drum room!
At the end of our visit, we bought you your very own triangle, which you'd been requesting for weeks (after you saw one in "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood"). You spent the rest of the afternoon intermittently playing the triangle while accompanying it with the ABCs.
The next morning the three of us had quite an adventure upstairs (like we usually do!) while Mommy went on a run in the nice weather.
Then, Aidan, you and I went for a run (and a stop by the playground) while Julia napped.
When you got up, Julia, you truly got up: you're standing so easily now. And even letting go. And EVEN taking steps toward taking steps!
We luncheoned and hung out at Mimi and Pops' house, where Aidan got to try the hot tub (which was cooled to be merely a warm tub). Julia got to nap again and practiced her walking and standing even more! And Mimi made Julia a beautiful headband.
When we returned home, based on a suggestion Mimi had mentioned to you, Aidan, you chose a movie to watch: STAR WARS!
Your very first experience with the force (and your very first live action movie) was Return of the Jedi! You really liked "Dee doo Dee doo" and even pretended to be the loveable droid for the rest of the afternoon. You sat still for a good portion of the movie, but bounced around and played with your sister, or upstairs or outside for some of it; not too shabby for your first non-animated, kinda grown up feature flick! The Force is with you!
How we watched the "Rancor Monster" scene...
The very next day you wanted to see more, so your mother showed you "Empire Strikes Back"...and you fell in love with Yoda. Especially the part where he steals Luke's Snack.
And look, it's already Wednesday. Soon enough, the Weekend will Strike Back, and we can have even more weekend adventures!
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