March 8, 2009

• Infectious Joy

  Have you ever thought about how happy, smiling people can change your mood?  Or how about how one negative person can bring down so many?  I prefer keeping with those who keep the joy going.   

  Joshua's joy is so contagious it's like a happy infection that just  takes over everyone around him.  Recently,  when we were enjoying the Orchid Show at the Botanical Gardens his excitement and joy was being passed on to so many strangers near him.  As he would get excited about a particular plant I would watch other people want to share in his joy and watch them start to smile.  It is a wonderful feeling I must admit, making those around you happy,  just because....well you are happy.  His excitement inspires people to stop and take notice of what he's doing and seeing.  Then like magic, they stop, smile, and start to slow down and see what is so interesting.  I've had complete strangers come to me and say, "How wonderful,  that he loves these plants.  Oh he can teach us so much!"

  Joshua is interested in space travel among the many other things he's so passionate about.  Friday, NASA launched the Kepler Mission in search of other earth-like planets.   All  day we kept the countdown clock open on one of our computers.  Joshua would check it out.  The launch was set for 10:49 PM.  Joshua was a little worried that he may be asleep during the launch so we promised we would wake him up and also record it on our DVR.  His excitement and joy was so BIG that evening. We decided to make it even more fun.  Instead of making him calm down and go to bed as I'm sure many tired parents would,   I thought we should have a launch party.  I made pizza while Joshua cut up apples and put cookies out for dessert.  He then decided he should decorate for our party.  He put up pictures of astronauts and the space shuttle launching.  He displayed his toy rockets.  We had a blast!!  He pretended he was a space capsule coming in for a landing.  He had a makeshift parachute and he would jump from the chair down to the bed.  He eventually became pretty tired about 30 minutes from launch time.   He was so tired, he could not stay awake any longer.  He fell asleep in his astronaut uniform.

   

   About one minute to launch time,  we woke him up.   He was so  excited.  We counted down from 10.  With each count down,  his joy became more and more BIG and so did ours.  10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...BLAST OFF!!  Wow it was amazing to see. The rocket launch was fantastic and my little boy's smile and joy was spectacular!!!  Oh how he shined!!  Dad quickly ran outside to see if we could see the rocket at all in the night sky.  He came in and said,"Quickly come out,  I can see it!!"  We all three ran out in our PJ's and slippers.  Sure enough in the southern night sky we could see an orange light rising higher and higher very quickly.  Then.... it was out of sight.   This was a memory making moment.

  I am so thankful for my son's infectious joy!  He makes us all so happy and he inspires us to take in and learn so much.  Life is beautiful through my son's eyes!!!

  • 1:47 pm
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