The weight of William on my shoulders

This past Saturday my girlfriend had an early morning job interview that lasted around 3 hours, as group interviews tend to go I imagine. While she was there William and I found ourselves in the unfortunate position of being awake at 8:30 AM on a Saturday. With rather slim choices of where to go I made the most obvious choice, the mall. I've mentioned the mall before, but I will recap as well as add a few details I may have glossed over last time.

The "Town Center", the formal name of the area mall, is a figure eight with a children's play area on one loop and the food court on the other with the normal mall stores in between. As a college student I typically ignore the stores, as any college student knows after gas and food (and gas) there is no money left for other things (because of gas). This means, along with every other student in the area, we wander the eight in an infinite loop. It's almost as if the shape of the mall was an infinity symbol, but that would be silly.

William and I walked for a little while, his right hand in my hand, his left hand pointing every which way as things caught his attention. Needless to say he was pointing at pretty much everything that moved, as well as everything that didn't move. Unlike his arms, his legs eventually got tired and beckoned to be carried. Instead of the typical way of baby on the hips I decided that the brick of baby that is William would be easier to carry upon my shoulders. I was now William's robot warrior, under his able command. Trusting upon the imagination of a one and a half year old did not lead to be as straightforward as I imagined. His inability to really understand the intricacies of a giant robot and the dire straits that we were in as the floor became lava, as well as being unable to speak, made his captains position more of a figurehead than a real commander. I would feign navigation issues as well as stabilization problems, jumping and spinning and running around the mall with a giggling baby on my head.

After I was sweating and sore, with a little hair missing from where his fingers had clung tight, an idea sprung to my mind. If I give William a sign saying www.timeforhugs.com and walk around the mall in much the same way I could draw awareness to this very blog as well as my comic. William and I would advertise the fun I have watching William while I watched William! Williamception! or something like that. My plan, although genius, backfired slightly when my hastily made cardboard sign became a weapon in the tiny warriors hands. Constant smacks on my head as well as lowering it to just the point where I could not see caused giggles and shouts to erupt from the tiny being upon my shoulders.

In honor of his great work advertising we went to Wendy's where we shared a frosty, as well as a new little toy for him to throw and fuss about when it didn't land where he could reach it.