Any tash batt?!?!?

The last weekend in April was priceless.  Whooda thunk that the cashier at Aldi would be such an influential individual in our son's life?

Three quarters of the way through our adventures this past Saturday Luke, once again, rocked our world with his random awesomeness.  Engaging in playful conversation while exploring the playground behind our church, Pete and I exchanged puzzled glances as Luke implored repeatedly, "Any tash batt?"  [Activate toddler talk translator sequence].

BBuZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Beep. Beep-beep. Beeeeeeeppp.  Beep-beep.

bbbrrrrriiing. brrrring.

Chirp. Chir-chir chirp. glub. glub.

ZAMBONI!

Sincere apologies for the delay for those proficient in kiddy code, but for those that are still wondering Luke was asking "Any cash back?!?"  As in, we are checking out at the register and using our debit card and the cashier wants to know if we want to get our hands on some paper money.

After figuring out what Luke was saying I, of course, got all philosophical.  After the day's activities I was quite confident in responding to Luke, "No thank you Luke, but thanks for asking."  You see,  I was the happiest mom/woman in the world.  Feeling truly blessed and abundantly joyful I could think of nothing else that I needed nor wanted.  Kind of like the day a couple months ago when Luke got his blanket and curled up on the sack for a nap without any prompting from me and Augustine miraculously settled down for his nap at the same time.

The glorious day I was reflecting on began with a relatively unplanned excursion to the Akron Zoo.  The Maione family that had us in the Christmas gift exchange got our family a membership to the zoo.  We were waiting for warmer weather to activate it.  Without too much premeditation we seized the sunny last Saturday of April to activate the membership.  Needless to say there were plenty of other folks that thought the zoo was a great idea that day too.  Despite the crowd we had a wonderful time.  We packed a lunch of pizza rolls I had made the night before and perused the penguins, lion, and tiger, and bears.  OH MY!

 We continued through other mini adventures like this rope bridge and an explorer truck and hideout.  We laughed a little at the excitement of onlookers in the farm animal exhibit since we find those creatures commonplace but realize we would probably ignite the same laughter over our excitement to traverse the city world's public transportation system.  Luke was uninterested in feeding the goats crackers or paper cups for that matter especially since the train ride caught his attention and led to a formidable two-year old fit.  Luckily we found a stationery train where he could sit and hang out a while on our exit route that helped the tears subside.

Mommy and daddy indulged in a treat a Swenson's on the way home since the boys drifted off to sleep [muuuah-ha-ha-ha-ha] just as planned. We arrived at the homestead in time to reload the picnic thermal tote and freshen up a bit before heading to the vigil Mass at our parish.  There is a school at our parish that dons an enticing play area.  We had been promising Luke we would stop after church once the weather was nice.  That day had come.  Prayer and worship was excellent and made particularly wonderful by well-behaved offspring from which the sun had sapped just enough energy to reduce the wiggles and inspire attentiveness.  Prayers of thankfulness continued after the closing hymn as we led a skipping Luke by hand to the playground.  He was a little annoyed by us interrupting his play time to snap a photo.

The second picnic of the day included roast beef and tabouli wraps, pretzels, grapes, apples, and a leftover pizza roll from lunch.  Below is the aftermath.

Earlier in the week, Luke had become more brave in tackling ladders and other obstacles on the other playground that we frequent which set him up marvelously to enjoy the variety of slides, the shaking bridge, swings, and seesaws behind the school.  I stood nearby the daring young lad, as the sun disappeared behind the hill, the air got a bit of a chill, and I heard for the fortieth time "Any tash batt?!?!?" with his small hand outstretched and thought. No. No thank you Luke. I've got all that I need and no amount of money or possessions could possibly bring as much joy as this day or the time spent with my husband and amazing little persons. 



 And then, there's that smile.