Tuesday's Terrific Moment

Quintin and I commute together several days a week from Zephyrhills to St. Petersburg and back again. We began when he was three weeks old and have made the trip, I estimate, at least 836 times; he's slept through it less than a dozen times. When we first started, Quintin screamed -- the ENTIRE time. I would stop every fifteen minutes or so, certain that the adrenaline pumping through his tiny body would cause some sort of permanent damage ;-), and it took us nearly three hours to make the trip. Eventually, I stopped pulling over constantly and learned to sing over the crying (at least for my own peace of mind). Around the time he turned one, we turned the car seat around to face forward (he'd surpassed the height and weight restrictions long before), and I hoped that the change of scenery would help -- it didn't. At about sixteen months, however, Quintin began taking a serious interest in the huge tub of toys I'd been carting around in the back seat all of this time. He now -- THANK THE LORD! -- spends most of the trip playing sweetly with his toys and looking through the numerous picture books I keep back there. He talks with me about the trucks and construction workers we pass and sings silly songs with me. I still savor each and every trip without tears -- a true miracle! I have dozens of pictures, taken at red lights, of a smiling Quintin in the back seat, documenting the incredible transformation! My new favorites of these are the above, taken on Tuesday of this week -- our precious boy "reading" to his stuffed horse :-).