We picked up my parents from the airport tonight as they returned from visiting Michael & family in Washington. They could leave a car at the airport, especially with gas prices the way they are, but we like to drop them off and pick them up. Dennis was especially excited to be at the airport and ran around and around exploring. He climbed up on the baggage carousel but I convinced him to come down before it started moving. He scaled a couple of luggage carts and then ran off and found the down escalator. He wanted to go up it, and I tried to explain how difficult it is to go up an escalator that is moving downward, especially if you've only been walking for 6 months or so and are less than 2 & 1/2 feet tall, but he was not to be deterred. He stepped on it and shot backward, and I scooped him up before he had much chance to react. (I wonder how he'd feel about a treadmill...) I located an up escalator and we rode up, and then he wanted to go down the stairs himself, which he did quite well. He alternated between a death grip on the handrail and tiny steps down or sitting down and scooting down on his rear end. As soon as we reached the bottom (where my back spasmed painfully from bending down and holding his little hand all the way up and all the way down) he took off running. I scooped him up (really needing ibuprofen) and handed him off to David. David followed him back to the escalators and rode up and then entered the DO NOT ENTER section and rode the down escalator back down. Arrrggggh. I wanted to ride the down one, too, but all those Secure Area DO NOT ENTER signs were apparently easier for me to read than they were for him. True, there were 5 people in the airport at the moment, and we were 2 of them, but I know better than to violate the policies of the TSA. Better to suffer down the steps than be strip-searched, I always say. Of course, no one stopped David and Dennis, and they rode happily down.
He got a bit fractious after this, so we played ride the horsey (I bounced him vigorously on my knee) until I spotted my parents descending to the baggage claim area. I told Dennis that Gran and Pop were here, and he looked way over to the escalator and saw them waving at him. He grinned so big, and I set him down then, and he RAN to them, smiling and laughing. His Gran scooped him up and kissed him and he just smiled and smiled. He had missed them. And they loved the warm welcome, said it was SO cute seeing him run to them like that. He fell asleep as soon as we got back into the van to head south, and gosh did he cry when we woke him up to put him in our car. Of course, it was midnight, pretty late for someone who goes to bed and to sleep at 8 pm most nights. He mostly slept through the diaper change and pajama installation and sacked out almost before he was completely set down in the crib. He was fun today, all day, and he enjoyed everything we did, from the setting up of the new playroom at Gran & Pop's house to having dinner with Aunt Lisa & Robert to going to the airport. The picture is him playing with his shopping cart in his room earlier. He's a champion shopper.
No comments:
Post a Comment