Balloon Fury

When Peyton was about 6 months old I started getting him a balloon every week at Trader Joe’s. At first it was cute. He would get excited, shake the string around, and giggle when it hit his head. Over the past 6 months his feelings about balloons has morphed into something else. Normally we get a balloon when we check out but that has become unacceptable. As soon as we walk in the door and he sees them tied to the checkout stands he starts freaking out. He practically throws himself out of the cart furiously pointing and grunting.

Last week I gave in and we went straight over to get a balloon. A woman was getting some for some other kids and I asked for one more, but she didn’t hear me. As soon as she started putting the bunch of balloons back Peyton broke out into full on melt down mode. His mouth opened wide, his face turned bright red, and he let out a piercing shriek that caused everyone around us to stop what they were doing and look at us. Someone said, “Quick, get that baby a balloon!”

We went to a birthday party last weekend which, of course, featured balloons. When he wasn’t busy posing in his party hat, Peyton pretty much spent the whole time urgently pointing at the balloons.

Today at Trader Joe’s we had a repeat performance of last week. A bagger stopped bagging just to cease the wailing that was my son. The worst part is, he doesn’t enjoy them as much as he used to, they just calm him down. He’s like a drug addict who just needs his fix to feel normal again.

Don’t get me wrong, Peyton is still the same sweet wonderful boy he has been this past year. I can’t believe he’s almost one! He’s so smart, and cuddly and happy. He’s almost standing, almost talking, and he almost has 10 teeth!

I made a video today that showcases a lot of his skills. This may be common knowledge, but if you click on the video below it will take you to the youtube website where you can click “view in high quality” (below the video screen under number of views) and then it won’t be so blurry. It takes a little while to download if you do that, though.

Part 1:

Part 2: