Hop, Hop

A lot of parents joke that their child is “like the Energizer Bunny,” but my little Tucker really is. This morning, and many mornings, he was hopping down the hallway, and holding his hands up just like he was holding an imaginary pogo stick or something. He never misses a hop, just hop, hop, hippity hop, hop. He was hopping so high I feel like he was hardly making any forward progress.
He doesn’t just like to hop though, he likes anyone to hop. When the kids found a toad in the yard, he watched with great anticipation, busting out laughing each and every time the toad took a hop.
Then there is the matter of his constant urge to climb….The only reason he stopped hopping is he saw something he wanted to climb. His other favorite thing is the horse—oh how he loves that horse. Lately, we’ve been watching the old Lone Ranger TV series because it has lots of horses in it, and it entertains him quite well.
Now the only problem is every time we start a DVD, he gets his hopes up that it’s going to be a horse show. Last night my husband put in a movie, and as the previews were playing the baby kept pointing up to the TV and saying “horse, horse, horse” with great anticipation. When I shook my head “no” he looked up at me with the most confused, heartbroken eyes and said “No horse?”
It was the saddest thing I ever heard. And then he climbed up onto the arm of the far side of the sofa and looked at me with the most mischievous “guess-what-I’m-about-to-do” smile. He quickly held his arms straight up in the air and stiffened his body and did what I believe is referred to as a “dead man’s drop” from the couch to the ottoman. It’s sort of a like a reckless belly flop with no water.
My heart skipped a few beats, but he hopped right back up with a smile and it wasn’t long before I began hearing the gentle hop, hop, hop of Tucky’s feet up and down the hallway once again.