First shoe-wetting of spring

I took the last two days of Spring Break off to spend with Grayson. He spent the early part of the week with his Big Mama and Papa, being spoiled rotten. So I figured they needed some recovery time and it might be good for Grayson to spend some time in an environment with rules before he has to go back to school next week.

We meant to go to the zoo on Thursday, but weren't able to round up any of his friends to go along, so we opted instead for an afternoon at Martin Nature Park, a wildlife preserve up on the north side of the city.

Grayson loves to go there, and so do I. They have three nature trails, a wild prairie dog town, a pond full of all kinds of turtles, and a stream full of ginormous carp. We always take a bag of dog food to feed the turtles and the fish. And once we saw a six or eight foot snake swimming down the stream.

There's one point where the stream makes a hairpin turn through some sandstone and has created a perfect wading and splashing point, where the water rushes over the stones and into a pool. Grayson always wades here, and in the summer gets completely soaked, playing in the water.

However, the water this early in the season is COLD, and though he took his shoes and socks off, he didn't get much more into the water than his big toe before he had them back on. That didn't keep him from wading on the rocks and getting his shoes completely soaked, but I guess it made him feel like his feet weren't getting as cold, if he kept his shoes on.

The shoes, by the way, were less than an hour old. I'd just bought them at Target. Every spring I buy a cheap pair for him to wear through the summer and essentially trash. He definitely got a head start on that at the creek.

Later I heard that there were something like a million people at the zoo on Thursday, so I'm really glad we didn't go.

Yesterday he spent most of the day with his friend Sam from down the street. Sam is nine, but they still really have a good time together. At first, Grayson worshipped Sam, but I've noticed that since Christmas, the friendship is a little less one-sided. It's good to see that Grayson can lose his infatuation with an older kid, and still be his friend.

Sam is a bright and good-looking boy, a little small for his age, and his mom tells me he has some sensory and behavioral problems that stem from a case of lead poisoning when he was a baby. You woudn't know it to meet him, until you spend a little time with him and begin to realize he has trouble dealing with frustration and anger. Grayson takes it all in stride, however, doesn't get his feelings hurt if Sam snaps at him or changes mood suddenly. And Sam seems to have a real affection for Grayson, if a little condescending. It's got to be good to be the older kid. I'm glad that Sam doesn't take too much advantage of it.

Grayson is generous to a fault. He gives his toys away all the time, even ones he just got. I'm not so open handed with his stuff, though, and several times have intervened when Grayson is giving his toys away. His friends know that if they ask for a toy, Grayson will probably give it to them, and I am always watching out for him so he doesn't get taken advantage of. Probably I don't need to... it's Grayson's stuff after all. But it bugs me to see kids working him to get things off of him just because he has a generous nature and very little attachment to things. Thursday night my friend Jin was here with her boys and they were all playing with some new toys Grayson got just that day. Levi asked if he could "borrow" one of them (that's code for "have") and I said no, those were new and Grayson wasn't going to loan them out just yet. Levi got grumpy with me and said "I was asking Grayson." And then was trying really hard to get Grayson alone so he could make his request again.

I would never have given my toys away when I was a kid. Most kids I know wouldn't. But it never phases Grayson to give his stuff away. It's possible that it's because he has more stuff than any single child needs, which is certainly true. But also he has never had much of an attachment to things. If a toy was broken, he would put it in the trash, even if the damage was minor. He might shed a tear over a favorite stuffed animal that got chewed up by the dogs, but he never wanted to save it, and was soon over its loss.

Now when I was a kid, I was completely the opposite, I had a passionate attachment to things, particularly stuffed animals. They were like real people to me. If a dog had chewed one of them up, we probably would have had to have a full funeral. I still have a bag of them from when I was a kid: those that I was closest to. I have no idea what to do with them. I still can't let them go.

This is Pooh bear. I've had him for as long as I can remember. He sits on top of the VCR in our bedroom.

When I got a new stuffed animal, I would go through them all very carefully, looking for one that was slightly damaged or imperfect. I always wanted to give a loving home to the one that nobody else would want. Consequently, most of my favorite toys were a little wonky in some way. I'm sure this says something about my character or my psychological condition, but I don't know what it is. I always adopt stray dogs, too.