These are mine

I spent yesterday with Seth. It was the first Monday since I got mono where I felt well enough to run around behind a (as of today) 11 month old little boy. I was nervous, but I knew that I was emotionally strong enough to handle the day. He still takes two naps a day, so I knew that I had time to rest if I got worn out.

I may have mentioned here that our living room is starting to resemble a theme park for small children, to that point, I refer you to the above photo of the blow up turtle pool we've turned in to a baby-sized ball pit. When Mazzy was alive we had done something similar when she was about six months old and she loved it. I don't think we were ready to see a little kid playing in a ball pit when Seth was six months old, but we are, now, and let me say, it was awesome!

Seth, of course, had no idea what to do with the ball pit. He would crawl over to it, swish the balls around, and crawl away. He laughed and you could tell he enjoyed it, but he had no idea that he could get in to the pit and play. (Do you see where this is going?)

So, what does his 32 year old 4'9" aunt with bad knees do? You guessed it, I got in the ball pit and proceeded to have the best time EVER!

There I am sitting in the balls, squealing and cooing and laughing like an idiot, but Seth came over there with a speed only reserved for babies and started to climb in with me. Once he got in, he freaked, crawled back out and sat on the other side of the turtle, watching me. What is the easiest way to get a kid to play with something?

You take it away.

Yep, I started hoarding all of the balls saying, "This is mine. And this is mine. And these are mine." I piled up the balls, as many as I could, in my lap and between my body and the back wall of the turtle pit.

Viola! Seth crawled in and started taking the balls away from me, piling them all around him. He was kicking them with his feet and laughing. I swear, we spent an hour in the pit, just laughing and kicking (and in Seth's case, licking the balls) like it was the End of the World Party and we brought the ball pit.

When Adam came home, I climbed back in the pit and Seth joined me. The three of us (Adam on the outside, of course) played and laughed for a while. It was like, "Oh, yeah, we liked being parents."

It's not like I get confused, we know that we are Aunt and Uncle, and we take that seriously, but that empty spot gets poked. It was a pleasant poke, nothing like when Seth accidentally calls me Mama or when Phoenix asks why Mazzy had to die, but a poke nonetheless.