This Too Shall Pass

Fans. Was it really only a year ago that Joe was referring to himself as Joe-Joe?* Memorial Day Weekend 2011 found us doing our best to weather the ups and downs of life with the almost-three-year-old Joe. A representative example of a down:

The setting is the bambini's room, after afternoon nap, holiday Monday afternoon. Clara is already snacking on watermelon and water in the dining room when Our Hero wakes.

Joe: Where we going to go?

Julie: I don't know, Pal. We'll sort it out after snack.

Joe begins to wail, loudly, and continues to wail for the next half hour.

Scene.

Julie's best guess is that Our Hero wanted to go and look at trucks again because a) we did that last Saturday after nap and of course, if it happened once after afternoon nap on a weekend, ergo, it will happen always after afternoon nap on a weekend; and b) a version of the above scene had occurred Saturday after afternoon nap except that Joe's wailing included "I want to look at trucks," tipping the listener off as to the cause of the angst.

It is at such moments that one is inclined to think, "This too shall pass." And indeed, it shall. But that idea cuts in at least two ways, doesn't it, Fans? Because as Joe wailing because he has not been able to give voice to what is inside his head, and as we are, as yet, unable to read minds, so too will pass such things as the frequency of the spontaneous hugs such as that captured here from earlier Monday morning. Already Joe-Joe is no long not even Joe. He is simply I, him. Ours.

*See http://joeandclara.blogspot.com/2010/06/memorial-day.html.