{"id":11845,"date":"2024-11-18T10:47:47","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T15:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=11845"},"modified":"2025-02-28T16:59:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T21:59:22","slug":"11-17-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=11845","title":{"rendered":"11\/17\/24"},"content":{"rendered":"

For E.C.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a most excellent \u00a0\u201c36th<\/sup> birthday\u201d . . . \/s<\/p>\n

I shared CHEEZ-IT communion with E.C. and held her hand.<\/p>\n

I watched her go down the tube slide \u201cOne more time!\u201d\u2014many times.<\/p>\n

Thinking her Dad was trailing behind her (a physical improbability), she stuck her head back into the maw of the slide, cupped her hand to her mouth, and called out:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou comin\u2019 Daddy? You comin\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

How does an \u201calmost\u201d 2-year-old girl learn to amplify sound with her cupped hand and call out around a blind curve and through a tunnel? From whence comes the courage?<\/p>\n

We watched an elephant toss a tree like a twig and use it to scratch its head.<\/p>\n

As we were leaving the zoo, E.C.’s Nana was pushing her in the stroller, and her Dad was walking beside her.<\/p>\n

I was a few steps behind, out of her line of sight.<\/p>\n

I watched her look left and spot her Dad, then lean forward and turn to eye her Nana.<\/p>\n

She asked, \u201cWhere\u2019s Doc?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere I am,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n

I pulled even with the stroller and peeked around the cover. She smiled.<\/p>\n

How cool and sweet is that? I thought.<\/p>\n

E.C. has my back. I\u2019m part of her pack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For E.C. It was a most excellent \u00a0\u201c36th birthday\u201d . . . \/s I shared CHEEZ-IT communion with E.C. and held her hand. I watched her go down the tube slide \u201cOne more time!\u201d\u2014many times. Thinking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","comments-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11845"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11901,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11845\/revisions\/11901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}