SWEET BABY!

When Thad smiles at you, it is like everything else fades to the background. It doesn't matter how tired I am, how frazzled or defeated I feel. Thad has smiled at me, with real eye contact. Nothing else matters. Those cheerios (affectionately called donut seeds in our home)? They will still be there for the vacuum tomorrow! The toys in all four corners of the room and all points in between? They say that THAD LIVES HERE! YEA! He is a sweet baby. And lest you think that I am biased (which I am, but I also have other objective feedback), all of his caretakers, his special aunts, his extra-special aunts, several uncles and the landlady AGREE WITH ME. Don't get me wrong: he is all boy! But he is first and foremost a

SWEET BABY!

BOYS GONE WILD! Part II

I am so very in trouble . . .

Pete had a conference call the other day for work. His participation was required.

Pete had a son who wanted to be with his dad. His cooperation was required.

So Pete, always on the lookout for any reason to put on his headset, multitasked! Women: Did you catch this??? My husband MULTITASKED during which one of the items he had to multitask with was a baby--HIS baby!

So along with the accolades and rejoicing there had to be picture-taking as well! Because my husband????? HE MULTITASKED!

AND THAD WAS COMPLETELY QUIET AND RESTED IN HIS DADDY'S ARMS FOR THE ONE-HOUR-PLUS CONFERENCE CALL.

Do I live with great men or what!

Downside? Thad wants his own headset.

Not going to happen, my little friend. Not going to happen.

WILD BOYS IN SEATTLE!! And an Addendum to the Thaddilicious List!

When I came around the corner, they knew they had been caught! They told me they were going to have some soup together, but I assumed (I know, I know; silly Mommy! SILLY MOMMY!) the dining a deux would involve a bib, a booster seat and a . . . SPOON! (Silly Mommy, SILLY MOMMY!)

They were so excited . . . Thad was eating non-jarred, non-boiled-and-mashed-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life, prepared-with-spices, big-people food! AND HE COULD PUT WHOLE FISTSFUL IN HIS MOUTH! IN RAPID SUCCESSION! WITHOUT SWALLOWING INBETWEEN!! His dad is so proud. So we had to photograph it. And photograph it. And photograph it some more.

I am SOOOOO grateful that there is digital media now! That alone is almost worth my not having a baby until I was 40! Otherwise, we would be broke: the film, developing, reprints, sending to family would bankrupt us LONG before the food bill! Now I can click to my heart's content. (Although Thad's future bride may not be so thrilled when I sit her down to show her "just a few pictures of Thad as he was growing up . . . he was so cute! It won't take too long. Let me rev up the 100-gigabyte hard drive . . ." )

Of course, all good things must come to an end and shoveling all those fistsful of food into a mouth takes a lot of CONCENTRATION and ENERGY and EFFORT! So all that's left to do is clean up.

What's that you say? You need help cleaning him up? I thought this was a Wild Boys activity! I am just here to record the event . . .

But who can resist that pouty plea? And Thad was pretty cute, too!

THADDILICIOUS ADDENDUM: He also WAVES BYE-BYE! He is proud, but I think I am even prouder! I crow loudly and point it out to everyone: "Look! He's waving goodbye! Isn't he the cutest!? I mean, really . . . isn't he just so adorable?!" Pete and I are so over-the-top.

Still. What's not to be over-the-top about? Look at our Thaddypus!

Oh. Are We Already at This Developmental Milestone? Really? Do You Really Want to Do This So SOON?!

This is what happens when you finally change your son's stinky diaper . . . it empowers him to CLIMB. And very fast! I turned to gather up the aforementioned dirty diaper and attendant cleaning tools and when I turned back, Thad was half in the activity table (I didn't read that this is one of the activities for which it is designed. I need to check that little pamphlet-thingy again, clearly.). I just sat there thinking, "Well, this will be good exercise for him to try and try and try to get all the way up." As this naive, silly-mommy thought was going through my mind, Thad was up and in and on his way to the coffee table . . .

Since the coffee table is also my work table, he first had to survey the topography to determine how to get hand- and footholds amidst mommy's work.

He also starting dancing a jig because Julie Andrews started singing A Few of My Favorite Things which happens to be one of his favorite things. What can I say? My son has priorities!

Anyway, he was pretty determined to get onto the coffee table but you could tell he was a little more cautious about how to do it and what he would do after he made the climb.

So he kept rockin' out, stopping every once and a while to flash his poor old distraught-yet-fascinated mother a grin that communicated volumes: "You poor woman. I have seduced you with my cuddliness, my wit, my laughter at your lame animal noises . . . Now you belong to me, heart and soul . . . Now my real fun begins: I am going to climb, Climb, CLIMB! Your heart will never be the same. This is only the beginning, Mother Dear!!"

My little cherub . . . I applaud your sense of adventure, your physical prowess (also evident in your artful gymnastics to avoid diapering, dressing, undressing and a thousand other things), your strategic thinking, your fearlessness (written now with much fear and trepidation), your energy and your tenacity! These are qualities that your daddy and I very much want to form in you--in addition to caution, care and safety!

As I helped you DOWN DOWN DOWN, I was thrilled and I mourned. My little baby is really gone. He is desparate to walk and climb and GO, MOM! But I am thrilled, too! You have such a wonderful personality, Thaddypus. When Julie Andrews sings Getting to Know You she puts to words the adventure that is mine: learning to read my son--to delight in his accomplishments, to mourn his misses, to laugh when he laughs, to comfort when he cries and most importantly, to teach him to live a grace-filled life.

And of course, to take great care with his poor old mom's heart. Please God. Amen.

TEN MONTHS OF THADDILICIOUS FUN!!!

Thaddeus turned 10 months last week. I wanted to write on the day, but given his age it is not hard to understand why that didn't happen. I hope.

So here are the Ten Things That Make Thad Thaddilicious:

10. He is SO EASY! He doesn't cry very much. He eats well. He plays well. He is smart. He enjoys life and loves to be enjoyed.
9. He is SO FUN! He loooovvvveeessssss to laugh. He laughs at our laughter. He laughs at his rocking chair. He laughs at himself in the mirror. He will even laugh in the midst of crying!
8. He LOVES MY MUSIC!! Thad will fall asleep to me singing hymns. He has a special thing for Julie Andrews (sorry, Pete). He enjoys a good country song. But best of all, he gets the biggest kick out of "I'm a Little Pile of Tin," the best song in the world.
7. He is GORGEOUS. While shopping the other day in a few different stores, I was stopped no fewer than five times and told how beautiful my baby is and how huge his eyes are and what a great flirty-bird he is!
6. He CRAWLS LIKE A LAND CRAB! My son has invented a new, more fun way of crawling: instead of two hands and two knees, he prefers two hands, a left foot and a right knee. He is quite fast and I think it bodes well for a love of seafood!
5. He has a NEW SNAGGLETOOTH! He went to bed toothless as a little old mountain man and woke up with a razor-sharp, pearly-white, oh-so-useful TOOTH. We think more may come, but so far . . .
4. He LOVES HIS DAD AND MOURNS WHEN HE LEAVES FOR WORK. Thad clutches onto his daddy's button-down shirt, lays his head on his chest and looks away from me as if to say, "If I don't see you, you don't exist and my dad will stay home and wrestle with me!" (He graciously only cries a few minutes when Daddy leaves so my heart isn't completely ripped out of my chest.)
3. HE IS A CLEAN-FREAK! He loves to take a cloth (his favorite is the red and white one knitted by his Great Grandma Johnnie) and wipe off his little rocking chair, the coffee table, his little rocking chair, his little rocking chair some more . . . I told him that I get the message and I will start dusting once a week even though those EVIL MEN WHO ARE BUILDING A BOX HOUSE ON A POSTAGE-STAMP-SIZE OF LAND ARE KICKING UP ALL KINDS OF DIRT, VIA NOISE THAT INTERRUPTS YOUR NAP, EVERY SINGLE DAY. Um, but he is clean and I like that in a person.
2. He UNDERSTANDS ME! zabjzzzzzzzzzbJ (the previous communication brought to you by Thaddilicious Thaddeus). I ask him to take off his bib--he does it. I ask him to find his binky--he does it. I tell him no--HE DOES IT!
1. HIS FIRST WORD WAS "YEA!" How great is that?! Yea!

That's exactly my sentiment, Thad. We have you in our lives . . . Daddy and I continually say, "YEA!"

We know the excitement of getting a present- we love to unwrap it to see what is inside. So it is with our children – they are gifts we unwrap for years as we discover the unique characters God has made them.
--Cornelius Plantinga