Vince Memories - Part I

I wanted to take a few minutes to write down some of the great memories that I have of Vince. For some reason, I feel like he's growing up so fast, and that if I don't write some of these memories down now, they'll be gone forever. Some of them are very recent, some of them are much older.

Here's Part I.

For almost a year after we moved to Braintree, I would take Vince to daycare on the T. It was about a 40 minute ride each way, and I would have him sit next to me for the ride. In the mornings, Lisa would ride halfway with us, and on the way home we were on our own. This was a really special time for us, since I could give him my focused attention for nearly 1 1/2 hours a day. There were no distractions, like a pile of dirty dishes to clean, so it was just us interacting with each other. Here are some of my favorite memories from those trips:

- I would typically take 3-4 books with me each day, and we would read them on the way there and the way back. That much time reading to him really cemented his love of books. We had so many books in heavy rotation, I can't even remember all of the ones that we read.
- I came to learn where so many pieces of construction equipment (diggers, loaders, bulldozers, etc.) that could be seen from when the T runs above ground. Whichever side of the train we were on, I knew when something was coming up that I could point out to Vince. This was great during those rides when he wanted to look out the window. He would get so excited when he saw a bulldozer or digger, he would point and shout. There is also an ambulance depot that he was excited to see.
- Vince picked up the name of some of the T stops from the announcements. The one that always seemed to stick in his mind was North Quincy. Whenever I asked him what the next stop was, no matter where we were, he would say "North Quincy!" So one day we're riding home, and I'm chatting with some of the people around us as Vince is doing cute things. So after we leave the JFK stop, which is the one before North Quincy, I asked Vince: "What's the next stop?" With all of the people around us, he shouted "North Quincy!" All of the people were totally shocked that this 1 1/2 year old had memorized the subway stops!
- My favorite memory on the T was when Vince was about a year and a half old. He was sitting next to me, and on the other side of him was an attractive woman in her early 20s. Vince was standing and babbling something to her, and she was nodding and smiling at him. Next thing, he turns to me and gives me a hug, then turns to her and gives her a hug! She hugged him back and said "Oh, he's the cutest!" The first thing I thought was: "If he's getting away with this now, he's going to be a big headache as a teenager."

to be cont'd.....