Giving Thanks

 The midday sky is boiling with an unsettled pallet of grey and silver hues. Although raindrops have taken a moment to stop falling, the light breeze shakes the leaves of the trees that line the street causing drops of water to rain down from their canopy. Some of the trees explode out of the background in brilliant reds and gold. The contrast of the surrounding greenery and dark grey sky, makes the fall spectacle of these trees even more stunning. The street is all but deserted as I walk down the middle of the road, wishing I could spend the day in this moment. Still, I was on an errand for my work and could only linger for a short time before heading back to my office.

  It is not that this place I found myself in was any more special than anywhere else around here, it is that I found a moment in time that was beautiful and peaceful; a rare treat these days as a father of two young boys. Moments like this are so rare at this point in my life. Not for lack of want, we certainly make a concerted effort to get out and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us where we live, but honestly, children are chaos! Long gone are the days of a quiet, peaceful hike where all you hear is the sound of the nature around you.   Instead you get a constant stream of questions, usually along the lines of where we are going and why, along with statements like, "I'm hungry", or "I'm thirsty".
 Nor can you lay down in the sand on the beach with your eyes closed feeling the warmth of the sun and listening to the sound of the waves. It is non-stop chasing kids, keeping them out of the surf and off of the rocks.
  This is parenthood...and I would not give it up for anything. There is a great payoff to all the sacrifices and such a deep connection with your children that I would have never known were it not for them.
                                                                                 ~
Orion, being just shy of 16 months, has a knack for being able to communicate beyond his ability to use words. Although he can say words and simple sentences, he has had to develop his own style of forming words and sounds. Example; "I want this" started out as "I UNTthisss".  "UNT" was an ascending, loud shrill which tapered off into "this", which had a few extra s's on the end. He has begun to annunciate better now, and the shrill sound is going away. "I want this" has also become "I want milk","I want juice."and "I want down."
   On Thanksgiving day, we were caught off guard by Orion's ability to convey his desires. Orion had his first taste of Martinelli's sparkling apple juice. He climbed up on the table after spying a bottle of his new favorite juice, sitting right in front of Melanie. "I want juice... I want juice...I want juice." he said over and over pointing at the Martinelli's. "Yeah, thats juice," Melanie said in an effort to pacify him, but since she did not offer Orion any of this delicious nectar, Orions plea's became more desperate; "I want juice!" he proclaimed, pointing at the juice and then pointing at his chest, over and over again. It was adorable and he certainly made his point.

   Apollo makes me laugh all the time. He acts goofy and comes up with off the wall things that he says or does. I know I focus on how funny he is quite often in my blog, but he is such a bright young man as well. He has a fascination with rockets, stars, planets, and all things space. Apollo has a pretty wild imagination too, and loves to make up his own stories. Melanie reads a lot of stories with both boys, and although I am not as consistent with the reading, I do like to encourage Apollo to use his imagination. I will lie in bed next to him, we will close our eyes and tell eachother stories that we have made up. I encourage him to picture in his mind, the characters and describe what they look like. The resulting stories and visualizations are fun for both of us. There are times that Apollo will come up with something that totally surprises me. Last night, we took a trip via rocket that had guns in the fins to shoot asteroids, to Jupiter. Apollo Told me that Jupiter has no solid surface to stand on so we had to land on one of the moons. I was impressed that he listened to and retained this kind of information, but was mildly shocked that he put together that Jupiters moons had a solid surface that we could land on. One thing left me a bit perplexed though; In Apollo's story, after we landed on one of Jupiters moons, he paused for a minute, and said, "Dada, it takes a long time to get to the planets by rocket. If we wanted to get home fast, we can just take the water tubes."
"Water tubes?" I asked.
"Yeah, there are watertubes that connect all the planets. They are just invisible and you have to know where to find them, but they can take you back to earth really fast," he replied.
It sounds to me like he was talking about worm holes as envisioned by a child, but I have no idea how he came up with that. I thought it was pretty creative and also very insightful for a 4-year-old that has never heard of physics or general relativity. Maybe we have a future scientist or sci-fi writer on our hands.
                                                                   ~
 In this season of thanks, I would be remiss if I did not offer up what it is in my life that I am thankful for:
   I am thankful my children and all the love and laughter they show me. They are extraordinary to me in every way. I am thankful for my beautiful wife. She keeps all of us in line and takes great care of us and loves us unconditionally. We would be lost without her. I am thankful that my family is healthy, especially Apollo and Orion at their young age. I am thankful for every breath that fills their lungs, every step that they take, every word that they speak, every noise that they make.
  I am thankful for the adventures that Apollo and Orion share with me; it has made this life much more interesting.