Familiarity may breed contempt, but familiarity also has a way of slowly wringing the awe and wonder out of life. Just leave it to a toddler to make it all fresh and anew.
While Janel was busy with some of her other responsibilities (She's now a published author--check out her latest article on Pilates), Faith and I spent the day together doing the mundane (running errands) and the not-so-mundane (getting within inches of the fastest moving animal on the planet -- a Peregrine Falcon.) When we approached the first bird (a Hawk shown above) at a local park, Faith was a little scared. The poor bird handler in the picture above thought it was him. But since Faith has never met a person she didn't like, I knew better. After a moment, Faith warmed up to the bird.
Then, we moved along to check out the Peregrine Falcon. By this time, Faith was so comfortable with the birds that her inhibition began to fade. I could see the little wheels turning in her brain as she thought the Falcon's eyes looked like her little baby doll's eyes ... which she likes to poke with her index finger. In a flash, I had a terrifying vision of the Falcon snatching Faith with his talons while Faith did the sign for "bird." I quickly stepped backward to avert disaster, resulting in a displeasing whimper from Faith.
The temperature soared to a scorching 41 degrees that afternoon, so we decided to cap off our adventure with birds by taking a walk in the snow-covered woods surrounding the park, much to Faith's delight. She loves to stomp on all clumps of snow in the parking lot, which left her indecisive about which direction to go in the woods as it was a wonderland of clumps. Here she is above surveying which clump to attack next.
Now that Faith preferred mode of transportation is walking, she has no qualms about grabbing any pair of jean legs she can find when she wants to take a break. When she first began doing this, I thought it was because she couldn't decipher my jeans from anyone else's. But now I realize that just doesn't care whose legs occupy the jeans as long as she can steady herself to catch her breath. Here she is using my legs for a pit stop.
All in all, we had a pretty fun day ... except for the resistance I met while trying to pose Faith in the snow for some of the pictures I took below.
2 comments:
jason you are hilarious.
janel, you are an amazing writer! way to go. i have always been a huge pilates fan and it was great to read more info on it! very well done. =)
Oh Faith - is that Ella's winter coat? You are so precious.
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