I've been meaning to jot down a few of Reid's favorite spring time adventures. Now that he's made some good summer memories he's starting to reminisce less and less about his Spring time fun. But I want to write them down before either of us forget the impressions April thru June of 2013 left on his young mind.
1. Eating french fries at the haircut store wasn't just his first big sentence, but it seemed to be the first memory he held on to for an extended period of time. Six weeks after that trim I cut 12 inches off my hair to donate to locks of love. I went to a salon north of Oshkosh while the kids were already in bed. When Reid woke up the next morning and saw my new style he quickly wondered where his french fries were. Silly kid. He was looking for traditions where there aren't any.
2. The town of Algoma parade on the other hand, will become a tradition. The first Saturday in June the town fire department puts on a big fundraiser/thank you parade and picnic. Since this was our first June in our house we didn't really know anything about it. We saw all the signs for the picnic at the town hall, but it wasn't until the night before that one of our friends from Church told us we wouldn't be able to drive down the main road for about an hour, from 11 to noon, because of the parade. Realizing we had no idea that there were so many festivities scheduled for the day, they invited us to come down to their place (which is a corner lot on the main road) and watch the parade with them.
It was the perfect sized parade. I'm surprised that not too many Oshkosh residents seem to know about the parade. And if they do know about it, they don't invade it. It really was just a nice little Algoma community event.
3. Trip to Utah. I'm actually going to subcategorize this one, because I think my parents will get a chuckle out of his memories.
3a. Whenever he drinks from his Cars II sippy cup he says something to the affect of "got this cup at Grandma and Grandpa Bassett's house." or "Mommy, Grandpa Bassett buy this cars cup for me!"
b. He made similar comments when he played with his new School Bus. I was amazed by how well he remembers little details, like that Grandma bought him the bus but Grandpa bought the cup. He has played with that bus everyday since we got back ... our trip was in April. He has finally stopped mentioning Grandma and his cousins each time he gets it out of the closet, which is kind of bittersweet.
c. He asked to go get Baby Cones with Grandma Bassett for weeks after our return to Wisconsin. Thanks Grandma!
d. He also asked about poopsey, my mom's bunny, on a regular basis. And to this day if we see a rabbit hopping around the woods he brings up poopsey.
e. Lest we all think he is a materialistic kind of kid ... his absolute FAVORITE MEMORY, the one he will not let die, was eating pizza at his cousins house. The boy loves his cousins. He talked about Zeke and Ava for a while after the dust of unpacking settled. And he loved pushing Zoey around after his belly was all full of pizza. I remember my brother Matt saying he felt bad they didn't do anything "special" while we were out there for two weeks ... but for Reid eating pizza at Matt's house was like going to the moon. Best evening a two-year-old could ask for.
f. Whenever we talk about planes he talks about going to Grandma and Grandpa Bassett's house. And vice versa. Whenever he asks to go to their house, we have a big long talk about how we have to take a special plane trip and we only get to do that once in a while. He's pretty proud of himself for riding planes all the way to their house.
4. Going to the airplane store, aka the EAA museum, with his best buddy Parker was another Spring favorite. We didn't see Parker for nearly a month after that, and yet he'd just randomly bring up Parker when we'd head out to some kid-oriented activity. He always wanted to know if Parker was going to be there. And we can't drive past the Whitman Airport without him getting excited and pointing to the airplane store.
5. Easter! Of course. I need to get our Easter pictures from Grandma and Grandpa Szilagyi. We had no idea he even remembered a thing about Easter. Nearly seven weeks passed before Ben's parents came back up to visit (for our Day Out with Thomas trip). When we put Reid to bed and explained that Grandma and Grandpa would be there the next morning he immediately asked if the Easter Bunny was coming again. He eagerly recounted Easter morning in its entirety. We didn't make the connection at first, and were quite confused when he started rambling about bunnies and eggs and pennies and Thomas and candies. But then we realized he was anticipating Easter festivities all over again. And when he did see Grandpa the next morning he quickly asked where his presents were and bolted out the door looking for eggs, candy, and monies. He was so excited, but thankfully he handled the disappointment of no Easter Bunny pretty well. I suppose a ride on Thomas softened the blow.
I know there were several other things we did this Spring that he talked about for months after they'd passed. His memory is a sharp tool; I hope he keeps impressing me with it. And I hope I keep jotting down these moments, so that the memory remains vivid.
1. Eating french fries at the haircut store wasn't just his first big sentence, but it seemed to be the first memory he held on to for an extended period of time. Six weeks after that trim I cut 12 inches off my hair to donate to locks of love. I went to a salon north of Oshkosh while the kids were already in bed. When Reid woke up the next morning and saw my new style he quickly wondered where his french fries were. Silly kid. He was looking for traditions where there aren't any.
2. The town of Algoma parade on the other hand, will become a tradition. The first Saturday in June the town fire department puts on a big fundraiser/thank you parade and picnic. Since this was our first June in our house we didn't really know anything about it. We saw all the signs for the picnic at the town hall, but it wasn't until the night before that one of our friends from Church told us we wouldn't be able to drive down the main road for about an hour, from 11 to noon, because of the parade. Realizing we had no idea that there were so many festivities scheduled for the day, they invited us to come down to their place (which is a corner lot on the main road) and watch the parade with them.
It was the perfect sized parade. I'm surprised that not too many Oshkosh residents seem to know about the parade. And if they do know about it, they don't invade it. It really was just a nice little Algoma community event.
3. Trip to Utah. I'm actually going to subcategorize this one, because I think my parents will get a chuckle out of his memories.
 |
| The reason for our trip to Utah. Sgt Bassett was coming home from Afghanistan! |
b. He made similar comments when he played with his new School Bus. I was amazed by how well he remembers little details, like that Grandma bought him the bus but Grandpa bought the cup. He has played with that bus everyday since we got back ... our trip was in April. He has finally stopped mentioning Grandma and his cousins each time he gets it out of the closet, which is kind of bittersweet.
c. He asked to go get Baby Cones with Grandma Bassett for weeks after our return to Wisconsin. Thanks Grandma!
d. He also asked about poopsey, my mom's bunny, on a regular basis. And to this day if we see a rabbit hopping around the woods he brings up poopsey.
e. Lest we all think he is a materialistic kind of kid ... his absolute FAVORITE MEMORY, the one he will not let die, was eating pizza at his cousins house. The boy loves his cousins. He talked about Zeke and Ava for a while after the dust of unpacking settled. And he loved pushing Zoey around after his belly was all full of pizza. I remember my brother Matt saying he felt bad they didn't do anything "special" while we were out there for two weeks ... but for Reid eating pizza at Matt's house was like going to the moon. Best evening a two-year-old could ask for.
f. Whenever we talk about planes he talks about going to Grandma and Grandpa Bassett's house. And vice versa. Whenever he asks to go to their house, we have a big long talk about how we have to take a special plane trip and we only get to do that once in a while. He's pretty proud of himself for riding planes all the way to their house.
4. Going to the airplane store, aka the EAA museum, with his best buddy Parker was another Spring favorite. We didn't see Parker for nearly a month after that, and yet he'd just randomly bring up Parker when we'd head out to some kid-oriented activity. He always wanted to know if Parker was going to be there. And we can't drive past the Whitman Airport without him getting excited and pointing to the airplane store.
 |
| Parker's Special #3 marked Reid's first Birthday Party invite. These two boys had a blast together. |
I know there were several other things we did this Spring that he talked about for months after they'd passed. His memory is a sharp tool; I hope he keeps impressing me with it. And I hope I keep jotting down these moments, so that the memory remains vivid.
3 comments:
I absolutely loved your blog sis. Thanks for the memories. Sounds like Reid remembers things very well -- does he embellish -- or remember things that no one else remembers? JK!!
Loved the story about Grandpa S and the Easter Bunny -- kids are so cute that way. Can't wait to see you all again really soon.
Love, Pa
...oh, and the french fry story was precious!!!
Pa
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Wish you could come every 2 or 3 months! Or every 2 or 3 days would be even better!
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