Several weeks ago I was cleaning out the documents folder on my computer and I found a file called “Hode a’Moon.” It was a conversation I documented between Roo and I when she was two. The conversation took place on the third anniversary – nearly to the hour – of the day we found out Roo was taking up real estate in my uterus. This picture was taken the day after our little chat.
This was her “wrinkle the nose during picture taking” phase.
G was still working on getting his 5 1/2 month old twenty pound body to sit up.
Two things to keep in mind as you read . . . 1) we don’t see the moon much in the summer in Anchorage; 2) at the time this conversation took place Roo still referred to herself in the third person.
August 27, 2005 . . . 9:45 a.m. . . . playground
G was in the stroller. I was pushing Roo on the swing. Roo pointed toward the sky and asked, “Wha’tdat?”
“What’s what?” I asked.
Roo, pointing, “Wha’tdat?”
Mama, looking around confused, “What?”
Roo, still patiently pointing, “Wha’tdat?”
Mama, with surprise, “Oh! That’s the moon!”
“Hode it,” said Roo.
Mama, with regret, “Oh, honey . . . we don’t get to hold the moon.”
Roo, quite positive and patiend, “Hode it. Want Mommy to pick you up and show you.”
“Picking you up isn’t going to get you much closer to the moon, Roo Roo.”
“Get’da stool.”
“That will take a very big stool.”
“Rye-ee get a bigger stool.”
“I’m sorry honey . . . we just get to look at the moon.”
(Long, long pause.)
“When . . . when . . . Daddy . . . when Daddy get back he . . . he gi’tit and pud’it in you hand.”
Oh, Sweetness.
Can I tell you how grateful I am that I wrote this down? They say your memories are part of you forever even if you can’t access them. This is one I want to pull out and savor and look at and turn ’round and ’round for the rest of my life.
Ingies n' Things 