Joseph and The Purple Balloon

July 4th, 2006

No family plans this Independence Day, just a bit of shopping. During our travels, we decided we should stop and get a bite to eat for lunch. We decided to go to Joe's Pizza & Pasta.

Our meal was delicious and uneventful until our waitress handed Joe this purple balloon. It was a lovely balloon and even had his name on it.

Now, Joe has had a few helium balloons in the past, but none had made quite the impression this balloon made.

We went home and he played with his balloon throughout the day. He loved pulling it down to the ground and bouncing it around on the walls and on his face and head. He would let it sail up to the ceiling and stare after it for a long time before flapping his arms and shreiking for me to give him his balloon.

Dinner time arrived and Matt left Joe's balloon in the livingroom and brought Joe into the bedroom for me to give him his bottle. I layed Joe down and he started yelling "aaaa daaa daa daaa gaaa gaaa aaaa daaa daaa daaa". Matt said "he wants his balloon". More "aaa daaa daaa daaaa aaaa gaaa gaaa maaa daaa daaa daaa"! I think he was cursing at Matt. He was trying to say "what the heck are you doing? That's my balloon! Give me my balloon! Mom, did you see what he did? Why'd he take my balloon?" Oh he just went on and on and then started crying. He was just yelling like he had experienced the biggest injustice ever! He wasn't crying sad, he was crying MAD! Oh my goodness, it was scary! I could feel his teenage years rushing at me! Eventually he drank is bottle and settled down for the night, but we hope that wasn't a preview of what the coming years will bring. Matt wants to clobber that waitress for giving Joe the balloon lol.

When Matt & I awoke in the morning, the balloon had sunk to the floor. We quickly sent it to Balloon Heaven before Joe woke up. He seems to have forgotten about it.

I wonder whether the next balloon will be different.