Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Find Something Red

~ oneletterup

Inspired by Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #81: Find Something Red

…If you wish, you have the option of “visiting” your photo archives….Capture shots which feature the color red… 

~~~

Find Something Red

When I was a young mother with a 5 year old daughter, I had my second child – a son – who was altogether different from my firstborn. No big surprise really, but even so… shockingly (to me anyway – I considered myself experienced by then) it required multitasking on an entirely new level.

One example: when we all went on outings of any kind, my son was likely to let go of my hand and run off. Or wander off. Precisely when my daughter and I were otherwise occupied. Perhaps being the big sister, she was less likely to do the same.  I’m not sure why, but I was most grateful at the time.

Two children to take care of and keep safe…a whole different ball game.

This brings to mind what Dr. A, our sweet pediatrician at the time, once said to me while trying to examine my son as he slipped from my lap and tried to crawl up her leg. As I described how my parenting techniques were not always successfully transcending to child #2.

She smiled that smile reminiscent of people who don’t have children…The first kid is for practice! I think parents should just throw the first one out. Ha Ha Ha.

She was just kidding of course. Although I kind of got the point.

But back to finding something red…

In order to keep track of this very lovable – and speedy – bundle of energy (once compared to a Great Dane by his first grade teacher) outside the confines of our home, I often dressed him in something red. It helped enormously if I needed to locate him in a crowd. At a park. A store. A playground. Since he was tall for his age, a red baseball hat usually worked quite nicely as I quickly spotted his head above the rest. Red shirts and jackets? He was a Chicago Bulls…and then later…a Red Sox fan. Done!

Never one to let winter’s chill keep him from basketball practice, a red snowsuit helped me keep track of him one January day when he was 5.

red ball031 copy
Age 5

A red baseball mitt lit him up on the ball field playing catch at 4 ½.

red ball030 copy
age 4 ½

Little did I know how quickly the time would come…when those flashes of red I’d see in the crowd at a neighborhood park would be someone else’s bundle of energy streaking by.

red ball033 copy

With a parent in hot pursuit.

Published by oneletterup

26 thoughts on “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Find Something Red”

  6. This is wonderful–I love the photos…and how brilliant to use red clothing items! I got a laugh out of learning he’d been compared to a Great Dane 🙂 As far as the first child being ‘practice’ and maybe they should just be ‘thrown out’–I wouldn’t have minded if my parents had tossed me out…better than being their Cinderella.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it–and yes, I knew the doctor was joking 😉 I look forward to your posts each day–always something interesting, and you offer a great variety!

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Love your story and images,OLU. Made me smile and made my eyes go wet. It could have been the story of my children – A big sister, very much, and her brother always alert. I remember I had to have a “leash” on him once when we were going by boat and he could have fallen into the water.
    A beautiful post.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s