Balloon

Jules received his first helium balloon yesterday. We did a daycare visit and happened to arrive right at the birthday party of one of the little boys. There were helium balloons for all the children, a pinata, songs and cake! Jules did not get cake, however, as I am waiting for his first birthday to introduce him to sugar.

The balloon was the hit of the day for Jules. He played with it all afternoon when we returned home. There are a couple of videos of him playing below. It was clearly an important thing for him, as he wanted it in the bath with him and when it came time to nurse before bed, we had to give the balloon to daddy out in the lounge so Jules would not just look at it on the ceiling, saying, "ba." Even after I had given the balloon to Steve and Jules and I were in the bedroom nursing, Jules would pull off every five seconds at first to look around the ceiling for his balloon. He settled down eventually, but it took a good 15 minutes.

As I nursed him, I was thinking about how things that can seem small to adults are so very important when you're a child. I remember this from being a child myself: the sense of urgency and importance I would feel for a particular object, and the distress about not having it.