We explored a little
Sunday September 27th 2015, 11:02 pm
Filed under: Family,History,Life

If you ever wanted to see where the Oz books were written, this was L. Frank Baum’s home.

And the children’s section of the library near it, with Dorothy, the Tin Woodman, Munchkins, the Scarecrow and I think the Cowardly Lion is in there somewhere.

There was a tot-sized area to rest in. Genius. The one who was the most tired is a climber like his daddy was and couldn’t resist. (He was helped down immediately–no matter how enticing it was, let’s not, kiddo.)

There was a huge killer whale of a stuffed animal atop one of the children’s shelves; Hudson asked about it, I found one of the librarians, and she thought out loud a moment with, Well, we don’t normally let children play with them–and then she brought it down and held it out and he petted it on the nose in awe. That was all he’d needed.

We ran into a young family who, when I found out who the dad was, I exclaimed, I used to babysit you!

But no–it had been his older sisters, he’d been born just after they’d moved away from Maryland. That’s right. But same idea: I knew his folks and his sisters as little kids, I’d run into the whole family at a wedding fifteen years earlier and that’s where I remembered the son from, who was now neighbors and friends with our son’s family, and it was all quite the small-world moment.

Hudson had been up late the night before but had been so excited that we were coming that he’d bounced out of bed early. It finally hit him when it was time to leave that glorious library: he clung to the railing. He didn’t want to GOooooOOO!

I scooped him up after a minute and asked, You really like this library?

Uh HUH! And as I said soothing and understanding things he let me carry him almost to the car, then his daddy the last few steps. Conked out as soon as the motor turned on and was still fast asleep when it was time for us to leave for the airport. We opened his door and I silently blew a kiss and hoped he wouldn’t be too upset to wake up to find us gone.

It is amazing how tiny little bundles of energy become when they’re run out of all their awake.

On an entirely different note–but in a way kind of not–back here at home tonight, we watched the eclipse, and I have a question: why did both the photos my iPhone took show twice as much moon as my eyes saw? There was just a corner of red, then at 8:32 half of the moon was lit up brightly, no more.

And yet, the camera saw past the shadows cast by the earth to let the moon shine brightly and whole.

I can’t wait to see them again.

 


1 Comment so far
Leave a comment

I am amazed at the energy of children too! Friday night hubby and I stayed in a suite hotel with my Amanda and her boys. They had just driven four hours to our meeting place so when they were released from their seat belts it was like shaking a bottle of soda and letting it go! After an hour or so of mayhem they brushed their teeth and before their little heads hit the pillows, they were snoring! Oh! To be able to sleep as soundly as that!

Comment by Jody 09.28.15 @ 5:11 am



Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)