I remember those days...

I'm not sure when it first began, when I started thinking about events that occurred in the past with my girls and began thinking, "I remember those days" , however, it has started occurring more frequently the last several months as I marvel at how fast my daughters are growing in vocabulary, height, and particularly developing into their own crazy characters.

Aside from the traditional father to future son in law thoughts like, "good luck son" and "may the force be with you" of late trickling through my brain, I've caught a few "I remember when's..."

This morning on a business trip, after boarding a plane, and after receiving some very cute texts from wife and spouse with emoji's I'm still deciphering like an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph, a tiny baby girl swaddled in her mothers arms accompanied by an obviously exceptional grandmother, scooted into two seats directly in front of where I was seated. Short flight from Detroit to Philly, I am thinking I might have some entertainment and a baby I get to goo goo too and mutually entertain. I'm a terrible judge of baby age, so I would put this little grommet at the approximate of 6 months, only because it's July and we have just entered the 7th month of the year.

Unfortunately, this content child was far too amazing, quietly purring and smiling in her mother's arms to focus on much else in the world. I doubted I would see or hear much of this child's personality on the flight.

A thought trickled through my head, I remember when .... my children would be this content for about 5 minutes before unleashing the fury on all those in earshot. It seemed like forever ago when they had attention spans longer than a goldfish and could stare at your eyes for what seemed like forever. No I could tell, this child was extremely content, had a great mother and the power of grandma sitting right next to her, this child was going to be lucky to wake from their love induced coma.

It is amazing when you take the time to watch the interaction of a baby with the world around them. Such a special place their view of the world can be sometimes, full of wonder, content, exploration, coming from a basic foundation of safety and support. Freedom to fail and learn by doing so, with a careful catastrophe prevention squad as your guide.

So as we all settled into our seats and prepared to travel in bliss, the baby popped up and smiled between the seats ready to explore. Adorable child, I remember when popped up again for me too ... remembering when my kids were that adorable ... they loved to cuddle ... they loved to explore ..... it came rushing back and a large smile broke across my face. The baby smiled as well.

Such joy in believing you were responsible for a child's smile. 

And then the cute baby giggled lightly, oh the joy!

It was at this moment, the I remember's began to flow

A faint odor slid it's way between the cracks of the pleather, trickling over the armrest. Gas probably, no wonder the child is smiling... I remember when my kids would toot and giggle....

The baby turned and smiled at the gentleman in the seat next to her... I remember when my 6 month old would flirt with strangers and make someone else's day too....

Then I heard the mother firmly pronounce, "oh $%@" and lift the smiling baby into the air off her pants... I remember when my girls pee'd through their diapers....

And as the adorable child continued to smile, the grandmother and mother discovered what we all know. Where there is smoke, there is fire, and the leak was not going to be allowed to mellow because it was not yellow...

At that moment, I remembered something very important, all the times when something natural and unexpected occurred in public with my child, and suddenly I was embarrassed and should not have been. Empathy flowed, but was not necessary here.

As I mentioned earlier, mom and grandma were exceptional. Pants were changed, magic wipes and a bottomless mommy bag produced not only a change of children's clothes, but mothers pants as well. I remain impressed we did not have to call in a bio hazard team and delay the plane.

Ironically, our entire flight was delayed over 1.5 hours, forced to deplane and the airline had to bring in another plane because of a mechanical issue, the computer part they needed to fix the plane, was not available in their hub in Detroit. Three comments:

1. If this mother and grandmother were our mechanic, they could have pulled whatever part we needed out of their bag, and perhaps a new plane too they were so well prepared

2. Perhaps this 6 month old uber child knew our trip was going to go to crap anyway

3. It's a lot of fun to remember when you are a daddy with daughters

Enjoy!

bvd