Humpty Dumpty

My plan all month was to write about Father’s Day. I figured there was good symmetry since yesterday was the day itself and I am indeed a Father. It wasn’t until a couple of days ago that I remembered I was going to be on vacation for Father’s Day and Elliot would be spending some quality time with his grandparents. Take that son.

Instead of making up something sappy about Father’s Day I thought I would fill you in on what’s been going on in Elliot’s little world.

For reasons that neither Lauren nor I can pinpoint, Elliot has become a huge fan of the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty.” He’s not just a passive fan, but a raving-mad fan like the ones you see waiting for Justin Bieber outside his hotel. Any time Elliot sees a computer, TV or phone he starts repeating “Humpty Dumpty” over and over until someone obliges and opens YouTube.

I consider myself somewhat of an expert on the various Humpty Dumpty offerings available on YouTube and let me tell you there are a lot … and Elliot knows every single one. There are old ones, new ones, ones that some college kid clearly did as a class project; there are satirical ones, live-actions versions, a Barney and Sesame Street version, and last, but not least, one that was clearly produced in about 1940.

When he’s not watching Humpty Dumpty, he’s acting it out, which has gotten somewhat scary as he gets bigger. He will sit on our couch and then recite the nursery rhyme, and when he gets to “had a great fall,” he hurls himself down to the ground. Laughs. Then repeats.

This nonsense is going at my house every night and it’s awesome. And while I wish it would go on forever, I still have to get up in the morning and go to work. For those that don’t know, my office is actually on the campus of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. One of the neat programs the hospital does for its employees is something called Chat and Chew. Each month the hospital randomly pairs up someone who works on the business side of things and someone who provides patient care and sets up a lunch meeting in our hospital cafeteria. I always have a great time at Chat and Chew and usually learn a lot from my clinical-focused counterparts.

A couple of months ago I was eating lunch with the director of nursing in our operating rooms. We were making small talk about our children, and the topic turned to the approaching swim season. She made a very compelling case that I needed to get Elliot, who had just turned two, into swim lessons right away. We talked about how dangerous backyard pools can be and how important water education is, even for toddlers. She was so emphatic that she even followed up with me by email a few weeks later to make sure I followed through.

Luckily, we had already enrolled, and Elliot had just had his first week of lessons. He loves it and is learning a lot. I have a few theories as to why he loves it so much, but the most apparent is that in his very first lesson, the teacher set all the kids on the side of the pool and said, “Ok, we are going to play Humpty Dumpty.”  Not meaning to brag, but my son knew just what to do.

Jordan Echols is a Communication & Image Zone Manager with Texas Health Resources and Dad to one son, Elliot.