10/19/05 Howling at the moon

(A retro-post here, found this note on my old server. Gabriel age 3-3/4; Julian 22 months)

Two nights ago, Gabriel had a nice moment with Julian when he showed his little brother the moon. "Look, Julian, the moon, see?", and with his hand on Julian's back, they pointed to the moon and said, "Ohh!" together. Very sweet!

A little later, while Dave and I were eating dinner, Julian burst into the dining room, all excited, announcing, "Moon! Moon!", pointing out the back door. I realized the moon was hard to see because of all the reflections from the lights inside, so I took him outside for a better view. The moon was large and bright and filled the sky that night.

But the next thing I knew, Julian burst out into fearful tears! I took him back in, and he felt a lot better looking at it from the safety of the family room. The next night, he was again very excited by it ("Moon! Moon!") , but was again fearful at the imposing sight from outside.

Oh Julian, crying at the moon! I'm sure he'll get over that quickly, but right now, it's so funny how thrilled by it he is, but at the same time, scared of it. Wouldn't it be ironic if he turned out to be an astronomer.

10/19/05