The Green Balloon

We went to Perkins the other day for lunch and Eliot got a green balloon from our server. He held onto the string all the way home and from the garage to the back door. I was thinking the whole time that Aron was crazy to not tie the balloon to Eliot in some way for fear of the sadness if he let go of it. And it was fine of course, just another time when a mom thinks she is being responsible and a dad's seeming 'irresponsibility' is rewarded with perfect success. Yet I digress.

We got home in time whisk Eliot upstairs for a nap and he carried the balloon all the way to his room. I left it in his room and he uncharacteristically kept making noise and not going to bed so when I went to check on him I thought (yes I realized this wasn't the smartest thinking I've ever done - but hey I haven't slept all night in over a month) that perhaps if we hung the balloon over his bed he'd be able to go to sleep. Ten minutes later he was still making noise and not sleeping (imagine that - could you sleep if your first ever balloon was floating over your bed?) I started thinking that if Eliot had access to his balloon - oh no! what if it popped and he put it in his mouth and choked to death and I walked into Eliot's room to find him suffocated by his balloon. So I went back into his room intending to get the balloon only to find that Eliot had pulled the balloon down from the ceiling and had it in his crib with him - and here is where my heart melted - he had it under his blanket. The kid had his balloon in bed with him and had covered it up with his blanket.

It hit me as one of the sweetest little gestures I'd seen in - well probably to be be honest a few hours - since he just seems to constantly do things that I think are sweet (yes I admit it I'm crazy about this kid). It was sweet enough to write down tho and one of those times I wish I had my camera.