Saturday, January 26, 2008

Make Mine a Guinness!

I remember when I was, oh maybe 9 or 10 years old, the Guinness Book of World Records was all the rage at my school. I think it had something to do with Evel Knievel and his daredevil heroics of jumping over barrels, buses, fountains, and even an unsuccessful attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon. I believe he set a few 'world records' for jumping things with a motorcycle and that was the coolest thing this rural farm boy, and surly boys all over the country (and world for that matter) could imagine.

I remember getting the latest edition of the Book of World Records and scouring through it to see what record I could attempt to break. I believe that after an episode of 'Happy Days' titled 'The Book of Records' I spent days trying see how many quarters I could stack on my elbow and catch in my hand. I do remember catching quite a few, but nowhere near the record. I also remember having a pogo stick (remember those?) and trying to jump endlessly on it thinking I could maybe someday break that record as well. It was loads of fun and something I had completely forgotten until yesterday.

For the record, no pun originally intended, the best toy we have for Lukas right now is not a toy at all. It is a Johnny Jump Up. This is a device that hangs from a doorway and has a seat and a spring and when you put your baby in they can hang out there and stand, or jump up and down, hence the name. Lukas loves, loves, loves getting in his jump up. He is such an active boy and wants nothing more at this time in his developmental cycle than to move, or in this case jump. I was watching him jump in this thing endlessly yesterday with the biggest grin of pure delight on his face that I thought he might never stop. It triggered in me that memory of the pogo stick which got me to reminiscing of long gone days of joyful play and possibility. Having a son has brought much of that joy back, just watching him so thrilled to be jumping up and down.

As for 'World Records', I will have to look up in the current edition and see if there is an entry for hours jumping in a Johnny Jump Up, or see if there is a record on file for most drool expelled in a 24 hour period. Lukas would be in the running for that one as well.

2 comments:

Whit said...

This is probably old news to the rest of the world, but I never realized until recently that Guinness the book and Guinness the beer were the same Guinness. Seems like they would put that in the forward- or on the label.

The doorway jumper did good by us.

James (SeattleDad) said...

Well, the rest of the world did not include me, even after doing this post. Yeah, something on the label or some sort of tie in would be a good idea.

Thanks for the comment.