But then, afterwards, it occurred to me what an incredibly unusual, adventurous life Isaac is having so far.
He is a five-year-old expat. He has lived in two states, two countries, and seven homes (some more temporary than others). He has traveled through airports in Atlanta, Toronto, Barcelona, Paris, Copenhagen, and Bergen (Norway), with several more to come this year. He's slept on trains, frequented many an eclectic coffeehouse, explored Copenhagen by foot (or stroller), and taken a ferry to Sweden. He is night-time potty-trained (I threw that in for my own benefit, because I'm just so happy it's true). He attends a Scandinavian kindergarten and speaks a little English, a little Danish, and a lot of Isaac(ish). Tomorrow he is going to watch his first-ever breakdancing performance, and next month he is visiting Amsterdam. ... So actually, I don't think he'll resent us for the fact that he has yet to own a dog or build a treefort or take a roadtrip across the U.S. It'll happen eventually.
And, truth be told, I expect his childhood adventures will come in handy as a teenager, when he's trying to impress American chicks.
Isaac is certainly a well-traveled little man! I enjoy reading about your childhood because it was so different from my own (in a very good way.) I'm happy that my son's childhood has been nothing like mine and pretty amazed that he's such a happy, imaginative kid. Coming from a childhood of divorce and complete dysfunction, I was full of fear that I would not be very good at the whole 'family,' 'raising a happy child' thing, but - so far, so good, by the grace of God. :)
ReplyDeleteI laughed at the part about Isaac impressing American chicks, because it's so true! We're all suckers for a well-traveled man of culture.
The grace of God is a truly amazing thing.
DeleteAnd yes ... I just hope we can maintain his well-traveled cultured life through his early adulthood, so he remembers more than, you know, 'I spent a lot of time in Denmark cutting up endless amounts of paper and gluing it to the wall.' Which he is doing right now.
Well, you might have influenced him with the book pages you covered the doors with in your previous apartment. (hehe...) Just take a lot of photos of the fun (cultured) stuff and hopefully Isaac will remember those times more than the gluing-paper-to-the-wall moments.
DeleteIt is funny what kids remember. My son keeps calling the first house we leased in NC, "The Michigan House." I'm pretty sure he has no actual recollection of the house he spent the first 3 years of his life in. He does, however, clearly remember the toy vacuum he had there - the one that I forgot to grab when we left for the last time. He unshelved that memory about a year after we'd moved, when he suddenly exclaimed, "Hey, where is my quiet vaccum cleaner? It worked much better than the loud one you use!" :/
*vacuum, but I'm pretty sure you knew that.
DeleteI dunno how I ended up here, but I liked this entry, his childhood is quite awesome (: mine was also that way. Since my parents moved to Spain when I was about 2 years old, I didn't grow up surrounded by family and children my age, doing stuff sedentary people do. Instead I had an awesome time making a lot of random trips (and we still do that back here in Mexico/US). So yeah, I think he's gonna love his childhood ;) lots of cool experiences!
ReplyDeleteBesides the frequent moving that sounds pretty amazing to me. Although I would force myself to have less 'stuff' and probably alot less of a slob.
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