My son is like a dandelion

Let me take a moment away from World Cup madness to relate something that happened while taking a little time off soccer action yesterday.

I needed to go to University of Maryland's campus to photocopy an article that our library couldn't get in time for my class. Admittedly, they could have gotten it for me, but I only discovered it on Thursday and needed it to distribute for Tuesday so, to be safe, I decided to go pick it up myself. Naturally, Xan cam with me.

I must say that Xan has far more fun in AU's library -- particularly the Media Servcies section where there are stools that can be turned round and round and round and... -- but the periodicals section was still fun. Afterwards, I realized that the front of the library featured a very large open grassy area with very few people on it -- a good opportunity for little boys to romp. We wandered under a tree and I set him down. Which was a very silly thing to do, for two reasons. One, this meant we were still on a rather steep incline, not down to the flat area yet. More to the point, however, yesterday featured some rather strong breezes.

Picture this, then: Xan is standing up with a very determined look on his face. He looks into the wind, hair blowing fiercely all around him, not upset but not particularly at ease either. He stands there for about a minute and a half... before being blown backwards by a gust of wind.

This made me smile more than anything else, with the realization that my boy, no matter how fast he is growing and changing and learning these days, is still little.