Earlier this week the weather was finally getting warmer after a long cold winter. On Monday I met Kim and Alec at the park after work. Alec was getting really excited about going down the slide. He laughs and gets all riled up by the quick little ride down the chute. He’s just getting to the point that he can hold himself up as he slides down without falling backwards…almost. I still have to provide a little guidance. When he gets to the bottom he tries to get up and sort of run somewhere even though he doesn’t really run, or know where to go. He’s just excited and has to exert himself somehow.
On Thursday it was another nice day, and after work I took Alec out to the lawn. It was the first time since he could walk that we could go outside and run around on the grass or the sidewalk. I wanted to see what he would do if he was left to simply roam around in free space. He got excited and wanted to take off down the sidewalk, but with no concept of what what sidewalks meant he would just go straight out into the street. Since it was the day before trash pickup, it turned out he was heading for people’s trash bags.
He also became quote upset when I tried to take him back inside. Apparently he enjoyed the freedom. The lawn has a slope at the end, and he has no concept of slopes, or stairs, so he tends to run off the edge, or down the slope causing him to fall over. I realized I could burn up some energy by putting him on the flat part of the lawn, and letting him run towards me down the slope, but I would catch him before he fell on his face. We did that over and over again. He was still upset when it came time to go inside.
This weekend snow ws forecast, and snow it did. We got about 10 inches. I went to get my video camera to film Alec opening a card from Mom, but I couldn’t find it. I had a memory of having the camera outside to film Alec, but putting it down to grab him before he fell over, or ran into the pond in the back while I was demucking it. He doesn’t know about pond edges either. I was sure Ihad left the camera outside, and that it was buried in snow. What’s worse, I hadn’t downloaded any video for months. I figured there was probably 1/3 of Alec’s life on the memory card, including our trip to Napa for Thanksgiving.
I went out several times to look through the snow with a rake, both in the back yard and in the front. People must have thought I was whacky raking snow around the front bushes. I wondered if I had left it on the lawn, and someone had taken it. Would they return it? Would they clear the memory chip? Who wants to watch boring video of people you don’t know? I also realized how boring much of the video I shoot is, and how perhaps I cold make it more interesting by asking people questions and having more dialogue.
As the snow melted over the last two days, I continued to lurk around looking for the camera. I had just about given up, when out in the back, next to the patio table, laying on the ground with the lens cap off, was the camera. Wet and dirty. I felt a great sense of relief. Whether the camera still worked or not, I wasn’t concerned, I just hoped the memory chip was intact.
A log of Chris life