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Saturday, March 10, 2007  

Up, Up and Away

M. Small has had a complicated relationship with hot air balloons, ever since he first encountered them in person on his second birthday.

Stage one: Change-my-diaper terror (below).


Stage two: Driving away from the Balloon Fiesta grounds (and airs, as it were), seeing several dozen at a distance, and wanting to touch them again.

Stage three: Returning to the Balloon Fiesta a couple of nights later for the "glow-deo," and a return to diaper-fouling fear of the things (below).


Stage four: Always asking to see hot air balloons on the computer, forcing us to drop whatever we're working on and browsing through our nine hundred pages of Balloon Fiest pictures on our Flickr account so he can name them all and point out the one he got to touch.

Stage five: Discovering his favorite George and Martha story, "The Flying Machine." George and Martha are these two hippos in short-short stories for children. In one fo the stories, George tries to fly, but decides his hot air balloon basket is too heavy, so he climbs out and it leaves without him. There are more words in this paragraph than there are in the story.

Stage six: Visiting the hot air balloon museum in Indinola, Iowa a few months ago, he picked out a pair of socks with hot air balloons on them. He would pick them out every morning to wear if we would let him. We don't. You might think that such small feet wouldn't get very ripe. You'd be wrong.

Stage seven: Deciding to become a hot air balloon pilot himself (below).


This was all his idea. Trash and I were in the kitchen, and we heard him calling from the living room. He was sitting in this empty copy paper box, reaching for that dangling ribbon and yelling, "Mommy! Daddy! I want to ride in my hot air balloon!"

Consider it done.



The only thing is that you kind of have to look out for some wicked wind shear in the hallway. Ever since we closed off the old door to the study, weather patterns in there have been kind of unpredictable.

Of course, you don't want to encourage your child's daredevil tendencies too much. Things could end badly.



P.S.: They didn't.

Labels: , , ,

posted by M. Giant 7:54 PM 10 comments

10 Comments:

Those pictures of him in the box are adorable. It was pretty darn clever of him to think of that, too! Little kids can be so ingenious.

By Blogger CJWalks, at March 11, 2007 at 7:00 AM  

He is really cute. And smart!

By Blogger Sara, at March 11, 2007 at 1:35 PM  

This is pretty great... but it'll only be like 10 or 12 years before he goes through the exact same process with girls.

By Blogger Febrifuge, at March 11, 2007 at 8:43 PM  

OH MY GOD HE'S SO *CUTE*! Seriously, that is one cute kid.

Universal truth: everyone loves hot air balloons (not clowns).

Also, you are so not obese. How can anyone thinner than my adorable husband possibly be even close to obese? I don't know what your doctor was thinking.

By Blogger kmckee7, at March 12, 2007 at 8:21 AM  

Awwww, that is absolutely adorable. What a great mommy and daddy you guys are. :)

By Anonymous Anonymous, at March 12, 2007 at 8:59 AM  

What an incredible family - I love seeing the pictures of Trash with M. Small, and you with M. Small. And what a smart (and cute) kid.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at March 12, 2007 at 10:38 AM  

The picture with M. Small in the box and you holding him melts my cold MN heart. Great picture.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at March 13, 2007 at 8:49 AM  

I think it should be noted that I think the best picture of the series was excluded:

Smiling boy

By Anonymous Anonymous, at March 13, 2007 at 9:04 AM  

He would love the picture book "Hot Air Henry." It's about a cat that flies off in a hot air balloon. It's by Mary Calhoun. My kids adored the Henry books when they were little.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at March 14, 2007 at 8:34 AM  

I love this blog... kudos M. Small on your hot air balloon.

By Blogger Stephatto, at March 15, 2007 at 5:27 AM  

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