Every year we kick off our Holiday with a trip to Radio City Music Hall to see The Christmas Show. This year, we had the honor of being invited to some pre-show festivities.
The day was sensory overload for the Complicated boy. In one short day, he dressed up as a toy solider, made cupcakes, wrote letters and cards for Santa and anyone else he could think of and then got to MEET Santa and the Rockettes!
By the end of the pre-show festivities he was asking “When do we go see the show? When do we go see the show?” … it was just too much excitement, he wanted to just zone out and watch the show… which he did.
After the show, we were walking back to our car (which was parked for free- but SO far away), The Complicated Boy skipped about ahead of us… racing the pavement squares in a game of what appeared to be “Don’t step on the crack”. Thing is, he was so focused on the cracks… he was not paying attention at all- and in New York City, this is a dangerous situation.
We kept shouting out after him “Pay attention, Complicated Boy” , “Watch where you’re going, Complicated Boy”… and he would look up at us, having no clue what we were so nervous about- and 5 seconds later he was back at it.
It was driving me nuts, and as he skipped over a celler gate- I got a flash back to when I was about his age.
I was shopping with my mother and my Grandmother. We had just come back from shopping and I was skipping about so excited to get home and play with the stickers I had just got. Like my son, I was ignoring my mother and Grandmother’s calls for me to “pay attention” and I walked right into 2 men that were fist fighting on top of a (Closed) celler door. The men immediately stopped — if you ever want to break up a fist to cuffs fight- just add a 4 yo girl in the mix… “watch out, there’s a kid, there’s a kid”.. Fight over.
The flash back made me realize- The apple really doesn’t fall far does it?
My son, like his mother is a lover of escaping reality and dreaming of bigger and better things. While we were just walking down a street, he was battling crime as a superhero… ever so deep in his fantasy world. Our calls to him to “Be careful” did not mean anything, because in his world he had it under control.
As this day dreamer got older, she had a bit of a tough time in school because of this. Learning decimals, and maps bored me. I wanted to create things. No matter where I was , who I was talking to, you can rest assure within 5 minutes I brewing up something in my imagination... and from the looks of it, (for better or for worse) I passed down this unique daydreaming ability to my son. He spends more time being Batman, Bolt and Astroboy than he does being himself.
And though this similarity makes me nervous, for the challenges that lie ahead for my little dreamer… for that second of time- I understood my son and thought… for just right now, let him enjoy it- reality will creep up on him before he knows it, just as it did to me today… again.
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