If you haven’t observed your world from the eyes of a 2 year old recently I highly recommend it. The previous 3 weekends I was in Dallas, waiting for that sweet new grandson, Alex, and I got a bit spoiled to waking up on Saturday mornings with a grandchild to cuddle. So last night I got Liam for a sleepover.

This morning I woke to the barely audible sounds of Liam in his crib, softly talking to Spot, the stuffed animal of choice last night. I went in to say good morning and he quietly sat up, extending his arms to me, a wooden train car in each hand. I picked him up and kissed his soft baby hair, holding close to him and the moment. No words yet, just heartbeat to heartbeat with his arms around me and mine around him. Morning love.

After cuddle time I made us breakfast of eggs, toast and tomatoes. We ate off a tray brought up to the grandkids room so we could plays cars as we grazed the tray. After each bite Liam would walk over to the window, point, and say excitedly “ ‘quirrel!” Indeed there was a squirrel in the tree, just biding his time before beheading what is left of my flowers. Liam said some other words in his own special language. I nodded. “Yep, we need to get Grandpa to shoot that pesky squirrel in the patootie so he won’t eat my begonia’s.” Turning those big blue eyes on me, he nodded his head too, saying solemnly, “Yeah.” That’s my boy.

Liam LOVES cars and I have a special collection of all kinds, Hot Wheels and toy metal airplanes, wooden trucks and train cars. In that box you can find a race car, dragster, VW bug, Jeep, boat and trailer, garbage truck, ambulance, police car, 18 wheeler flatbed, Air Force jet, Corvette and even a plain old sedan. Liam lined them up in a row, grouped by color, then proceeded to drive each one over to a new spot on the floor so he could start a new row. He could play with cars forever.

But I wanted to take him for a walk in the stroller, to experience the cool of the morning and enjoy his growing vocabulary while burning a few calories. We set off and it wasn’t long before we saw a very busy caterpillar. Greenish brown with some black diamonds on his back, he was inching his way up the side of the curb heading for the grass. This was one of the first “Wow” moments, which is what Liam says when he sees something really cool. We watched in fascination until the caterpillar blended away.

Other Wow moments included some very beautiful flowers, a small new white wing dove flying into a tree, a big green lizard sliding into a clump of trees, and lots of real cars and trucks until we turned left onto a side street. On that street we saw silver spinners hanging from a large cactus, spinning in the breeze, more birds, someone’s “paw-paw”, and drove through a jungle of overhanging tree branches. Liam rode quietly, two train cars on the tray in front of him because you just can’t travel without cars, and we both enjoyed our conversation and the moments of companionable silence. More morning love.

On the way back home, who should we see but Liam’s PaPa. He pulled his big truck next to the sidewalk to greet us before heading out to church for some grounds maintenance. Another great Wow moment.

Now we are back home, playing with cars on the wooden train track he built last night with Aunt Tracy. And occasionally spotting a ‘quirrel through the windows – a squirrel who’d better move his patootie before PaPa gets home.