Michael and Uncle Tommy

This is from last summer, when I went water-skiing at Lake Powell. Before this vacation, my son was pretty much indifferent to me, but I spent a few days with him in Utah while my wife was in Las Vegas - the first time I was ever alone with him for such an extended period of time -and he actually got attached to me.

So we went to Lake Powell, and put him on the speedboat for waterskiing. I put on my lifejacket and jumped into the water, and Michael started screaming his little lungs out. He thought something really awful must be happening to me, and the cruel in-laws were speeding away leaving me to a horrible fate.

Even in between runs, when the boat came near me, I would smile and wave and tell him how much fun I was having, but he kept crying and reaching for me, and wondering why he was the only one in the boat with the good sense to want to help me out of the water. It was both adorable and heart-breaking.