Favourite Memories of Lochie

This will be an ongoing list I'll contribute to as I remember. I am not the sort of person who keeps a journal or baby book (sorry Lochie!) and these are some special memories I don't want to forget over time as he gets bigger and bigger. Some are recent memories, some older:

* Lying on cuddly blankets and pillows in our very dark bedroom listening to Rosemary Clooney sing "Mambo Italiano" and 4 1/2 yr old Lochie laughing and using glowsticks to put on a light show (which was actually pretty good!) then the mp3 player randomly turned to Alvin & the Chipmunks singing "Christmas Don't Be Late" and Lachlan collapsing in giggles at the chipmunks singing.

* 4 1/2 yr old Lochie interrupting my time in the shower to use the toilet and after taking a long time, asking impatiently why he was taking so long and him responding with "Look Mum I was just drawing love hearts for you in the mirror!" - seeing many wonky love hearts drawn in the steam in the bathroom mirror and a sweet smile on his face.

* Looking into his big brown doe eyes and hearing him say "Mum your face is so pretty, Mum your hair is so pretty" me savouring the sweet moment before he said "Mum your mustache is so pretty" WHAT?!?! Time to get the waxing kit out! LOL.

* The time we were shopping at Shopko and he was only 2 1/2 and wanted to sit on the bikes. I lifted him up on a 12" bike and got a bike helmet and put it on his head - accidentally pinching his skin under his neck when I strapped it on - it pinched so hard it bled a little and took a little chunk of skin. The scream of pain and the look of hurt and betrayal in his eyes as he looked up at me and said "Why did you do that to me, Mama?" and how sick I felt in my stomach that for the first time he knew I was not immune from hurting him.

* Miscalculating the time and getting us stuck in rush hour human traffic on a subway in Tokyo. He was only 4 but I looked in his eyes and told him there would be a lot of people squishing us but that I would never let go of his hand and to step off onto the platform ahead of me. I held his hand above his head and with one hand on his little back, gently guided him through the crush of businessmen and uniformed school children as the crowd of hundreds moved en masse towards the elevators. Hearing his little voice ringing out above the drone of the crowds "Sumimasen! Sumimasen!" (excuse me, excuse me). How courageous and unfazed he was and still managed to remember his newly acquired Japanese language skilled!

* Taking 2 trains and walking back to the hotel in Ginza at midnight with Mum & Dad and Lochie, scared we may have missed the last train for the night - how Lochie crashed out asleep on the train and how Dad carried him so far back - Lochie practically a dead weight! How it didn't faze his Poppa to do that for his only grandson. Looking ahead at my Dad carrying my son through the streets of Tokyo, and my Mum reaching up to wrap her own scarf around his little hands and neck to protect him from the wind chill - just knowing at that moment that this was an image, a memory I would be recounting to my son in many years to come.

* Flying over Boise late at night in a fog, hardly making out the city lights - a sleeping little one year old Lachlan leaning on my arm. Then wondering why the plane was turning around - we had to go back to Seattle because we couldn't land. Letting tears fall unchecked as we flew back knowing David was a thousand feet below me waiting excitedly at the airport to greet us after a week apart and not knowing where I would stay that night, what I would do and feeling very scared and grown up all of a sudden. I had planned the trip months previously and I was full time in dental hygiene school, feeling like I was missing out on my little boy so wanted a special Christmas vacation with him. I had prepaid it many months previous and by the time we traveled we were having a very tight week financially. The fear of not knowing where my baby and I would sleep that night and how we would get there at that late hour. The kindness shown to me by a random Alaska airlines worker who gave me a voucher to stay in a Holiday Inn for free after watching several fellow passengers get turned away and refused free accommodation - and I hadn't even thought of requesting it from them! The amazement I felt at kindness of strangers and answered prayers as Lachlan was showered and curled up in a crib in a warm, comfortable hotel room that night.

* The first time I ever said "You're my best boy, Lachlan" and he responded with "You're my best girl, Mama"... and it's been our "thing" to say to each other ever since. And when he says it he says it with such tenderness it melts my heart every time. Lochie knows how to melt a girls heart that's for sure - other sweet sayings he has said to me include "I want to love you forever, Mum" and "You make me happy in here" (indicating his chest area). Sigh - such a little love-bug!