I suppose the title of the post should more accurately be, “The Things Your Children Do That You Wish You Were There For,” but that’s a bit long.
As everyone knows, you can’t be there for every second of your child’s life. If you’re lucky you’re there for some of the big ones, like first steps, first “real” words, first solid poo…er…yeah, maybe we can skip that last one (though I admit, I was strangely proud!). It’s just impossible to be there. Rather than be upset at missing stuff, I just try my best to picture it, and I get a good laugh out of it anyhow, and feel glad that whoever WAS there got to see it. After all, at this stage of his life he’s usually surrounded by people who love him, so it’s great that they get to share some firsts, too.
This one cracked me up: his first time getting angry at an inanimate object (he usually just gets mad about being put to bed or being locked out of somewhere). As the story goes, Grammy was watching him on Tuesday, as she often does. He was playing with a fairly large and awkward plastic toy (a musical butterfly on a pull-string), lifting it up to his face and over his head. During one lift, he clunked himself right in the head.
Dropped the toy. Got on all fours and glared at it. Barked a loud syllable at it, and then backed off, giving it the eye. Still on all fours, charged at it, barking and growling like a dog!! More in terms of behaviour than sounds (he wasn’t going “woof woof” even though he WAS growling!), but for all intents and purposes, exhibiting behaviour that he would have learned from a dog!
Priceless.
My favourite part is picturing that initial, “What the… THAT HURT!” reaction.
Would’ve been funny to be there for it, but I’m glad my mom was. She gets to have some of the funny times, too. 
