[from me: it's just been such a wonkey week with the war and all - and some people just have better stories than I do. This is our pal Jae: father and rock music type guy. This was written by Jae on the first night of the US bombing of Iraq]
lights... outside Last night we had the first thunderstorm of the season. I was checking email at about midnight and some pretty loud boomers shake the house and of course there was lightening outside. I hear Liam (who was 2 in Dec.) up and about coming towards the den where I am. He's half awake saying "lights... outside", sounding just kinda curious about why someone is turning the flashing lights outside.
Mind you, he was 1 1/2 the last thunderstorm we had, so this is his first encounter with a storm since he's had a vocab to think about and describe things. He has no idea what's about to happen, apparently the thunder woke him but he didn't really hear it.
So I tell him it's raining and stuff, explaining in calm daddy voice. So he sits in a comfy den chair and talks to me about 2 yr old stuff, "chair, pillow, rain, lights outside" calmly. Then the next thunderboomer happens. He literally jumped out of the chair practically into my arms with an "ahh ahhh" kind of yelp and I catch him in my arms and he's clutching me like a baby kowala. I seriously can't remove him, he's buried in my chest just muttering, "scared, scared!".
So I get him to get in bed with his mom, she talks him out of my arms by promising to hide him under the sheets. All the while I'm using the daddy calm voice to explain that thunder and lightening is not a big deal. But of course he couldn't possibly buy that, he's knows all about power outages and snow and ice and all kinds of harsh weather but this threw him for a loop.
So I was thinking about whether I'd still be able to calmly explain stuff away with the daddy voice if it were the bombs I had been watching on TV earlier instead of the thunder.
