A Pocket Full Of...

Sometimes when you have your hands full, but you want your kid to stay very close for safety reasons (like crossing the street) it is helpful to have the child hold your pocket. I've tried it during the last year or so a few times, but Dean has trouble getting a good grip and I should have started training him with it a little better before Jack came along and my hands were too full to guide him along the way.

Today I watched as a woman started crossing the street with a shopping cart being pushed with one hand and a cell phone in the other. Her two kids trailed along behind. Just as she stepped into the street she ordered, "Grab a pocket." They were the fastest pocket grabbers I have ever seen. I was amazed, impressed even. As I was thinking of ways she may have trained them to be such stealthy pocket grabbers, I thought about the location of the pockets they grabbed. The were on her butt. It is all so automatic for them that I wonder if she every says "Grab a pocket." when she's wearing, say, a skirt or something with no pockets. Do the kids just desperately grab at her butt? Do they put a hand on each of her cheeks and trot along?

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Dean and Jack were playing next to eachother on the floor this afternoon. This is the conversation they had:

Dean: Hey Jack

Jack: Hiiiiiiiiii

Dean: I love you big. (pause) I said I love you BIG.

Jack stares wide eyed with a big goofy smile on his face.

Dean: Jack, can I have a baby back ride?

At which point Dean begins to climb on Jack's back. Conversation over. Mom intervenes.