Driving

Our morning drives (and the evening commute) are an endless source of amusement for me.  While our trip is short, it is incredibly enjoyable for me now that Colin's reached an age where we can hold real conversations.

• We look for geese, talking about where they are (or are not) and how many we found.
• We talk about where we're going (Colin to "Butterflies", Ryan to the baby room, Mommy to work).
• We talk about trucks of all shapes and sizes.  There's a major construction effort going on right near our home, and Colin is enthralled by the excavators, bulldozers, cranes, cement mixers.  Today he nearly screamed "It's MOVING!  Mommy.. the essscavader is putting dirt in the DUMP TRUCK!  Look - LOOK!!!!"  Other days he'll notice a garbage truck or semi on the road (always calling them out by color as well as type).
• We find planes in the sky, and Colin almost always asks where they're going.  (I make up a new destination for each flight.  Texas.  Paris.  London.  California.  Madagascar.  Florida.  Berlin.  Monaco.  You never know where the next flight might land!)
• We talk about the other cars.  A honking horn means a naughty driver, and he talks sternly about when a car is driving too fast.  (This always cracks me up, because I know someday he'll be one of those people going tooooo fast.)
• He points out every stoplight and many street signs.  Red means stop, Mommy.  Green means go.  Look - a yellow diamond!  Red octagon means stop, Mommy.  Look - a triangle!
• We talk about songs.  What music he does/doesn't like, what song he wants to hear, what lyrics mean, and who's song it is (that's my song, Mommy!).
• Today he noticed people walking on the second floor of an office building and asked me what they were doing.  It took me a moment (we were at a stoplight) until I finally found the person - I couldn't see them at first because the windows were partially mirrored (although, of course, that didn't stop Colin from seeing them!  It just delayed his poor dopey mother!!).
• He even addresses attire.  (example: one day I had the audacity to send Ryan to school without shoes.  Colin was very disturbed.  "Mommy - Baby Ryan doesn't have his shooooes. His shoes, Mommy!  He wants his shoes.  Where are Baby Ryan's shoes?!?!")

Funny, you don't realize how nice it is to have company in the car.  My commutes have always been solo, my whole working life.  (Most of the time driving, although when I lived in Cleveland I took the bus for a couple of years so it was a crowded but solo trip.)  Now I have a driving buddy, and the companionship is wonderful.  When Colin was an infant and he got upset I would reach back and hold his hand.  This required a bit of a contortion on my part, but he would wrap his tiny hand around my finger and it calmed him, so I never minded.  And in some ways it calmed me too, holding hands with a tiny person and just having that small connection even though I couldn't see him.  Now, just a couple of years later we're having all sorts of conversations and he's really, truly good company.

I am awed at how quickly we moved from silently holding hands to discussing, well... almost anything.  I can't imagine what things will be like in a couple of years, with Colin and Ryan both to keep me company... can't imagine, and can't wait!  Drive on!