15 Months & Curling

The baby is now 15 months old and he is such his own little person. I was trying to get out the door with him and my bag and my keys, and not having enough hands to lock the door, I realized that I could actually put the baby down, because he walks now, and it was such an epiphany - he's growing up. I then took his hand and while he was still wobbly at times, for the most part we were able to walk side by side down the hall, into the elevator and out the front door of the building to the street. It is just so amazing and fun to see how they grow and how their personalities just blossom. We have a lot of fun, he's a fun-loving, happy little guy.

While working in Vegas, the directors added a pre-show "routine" that involved cast members walking either on stage or in the audience, to give the spectators a sense of the world they were about to enter. The staging included two people rolling huge plastic barrels across the stage with another two people in front of the rolling barrels with dustpans, brushing frantically as if to keep the barrels' path clean and clear. The directors likened the scene to a "Curling" match. I had no idea what they were talking about until I recently happened upon a curling match on TV (was it part of the Olympics? I don't know). Ah, now it made sense. And not only did it make sense in retrospect, but I've decided that being the mother of an active, vibrant and curious 15 month old is often like being one of those sweepers in a curling game. I am constantly whipping books or toys out of the path of my son as he walks around, blissfully oblivious to the potential for tripping over said books or toys that he has spread across the entire play area. And it feels like just when I've managed to clear the path and put that last toy away, there's a whole new trail of play things for me to stress over. Check out this curling footage, watch the sweepers - can't you just see me now?

P.S. I still don't understand the game!