Tams n' Summer Al

December 20 New person. He came into your life and turned it upside down. He went out of his way to provide incredible customer service. Who is your unsung hero of 2009?

Let me start with this. I am not a baby crazy woman. I don’t look longingly at other people’s babies or talk to pregnant strangers.

Yes, I like kids. I’m a teacher for god’s sake, but I’m not koo-koo for babies.

Until I met Alex.

Summer Al.

Aka Birdman.

I first laid eyes on Summer Al outside the Sacramento Amtrak station. It was about a 1,000 degrees and Jojos was  trying to keep the sun off of her tiny, ginger-haired British baby boy. He was tucked under her arm in the shade of the overhang like a little loaf of bread.

It was love at first sight.

I took him from Jo right away in an effort to be “helpful” while she and Julian clicked in car seats, loaded luggage and corralled their toddler. And pretty much for the next two weeks we were together, you could find the Birdman in my arms.

It wasn’t difficult, he didn’t weight much – hence the name. He was Mr. Easy Breezy, second-born kid. Who was this new person always holding me? Who cares?

I taught him a new game – Cyclops. I would take off my glasses, we would put our foreheads together, look into each others eyes and then shake our heads back and forth really fast blurring our vision. Then we’d laugh our asses off.

This kid was funny.

Birdman also became my dining companion. He wasn’t that interested in eating, which explained his bird-like physique, but when he did eat anything his pace matched mine. Nice and slow. We’d sit at the dinner table long after everyone else had finished and slowly make our way through our dinner like we didn’t have anything else in the world to do.

During our trip up the coast, whenever I wasn’t driving I sat myself strategically so I could watch Summer Al’s every move. There was just something about that kid.

When the time came for Summer Al to return to home, I cried.