Fatherhood

Patrick was upset when his mother went outside without him (cooking on the grill).  I set Patrick down on his feet the floor in the sun-room.  He was grasping my fingers as he normally did.  I pulled by fingers free and lightly supported his elbows.  He started walking forward ... out of my hands and simply kept on going.  Baby steps (those words will never mean the same thing to me again), but walking. I quickly got ahead of him and got Jen's to come back to the door and she got to see about half of the first walk ... to her, at the door waiting for him!  Fifteen feet on the first walk ... awesome! He walked from the swing to his Mama ... diving into her arms after about ten feet! Inside a few minutes later, he crossed the living room lengthwise for about 30 feet of walking ... up onto the rug in the middle of the room. AND, later he walked about eight feet toward his Papap, falling for the first time in any of his efforts. I think at some...

It started with an attempt to crawl that looked more like something the military spent weeks getting me to perfect (the "low crawl") ... Patrick got that down in a few minutes.  After all the photos, videos, and calls to our grandparents, we marveled at how amazing our son was. Then, the crawl became something that involved all four limbs; quite a bump up from just his arms.  It wasn't long before he was moving quick enough to get his fingers into the door as I was closing it. The primal scream of pain was unreal ... yet, all too real.  The little man's finger was dented ... I still feel a bit guilty today and it has been months since the incident. Then, just as Patrick was getting the crawling down, he managed to pull himself into a standing position without any help.  About that time, he took a nose dive off the bed into a popcorn bowl ... it was hard not to laugh as he cried in pain. He loved playing with a fire engine that he can sit on and in...

What a way to introduce a child on solid food. It was a Friday night when Patrick was about three months old, sitting on his grandfather's lap, as we were eating dinner.  Typically on Fridays we have pizza ... and this Friday was no different. What was different was Patrick's focus.  He was generally aware of the people around him at that point, but this time he was focused on the pizza.  In particular, he was watching as his Papap lifted the pizza from the plate to take a bite and then back again as he put it down. After about the third bite, Patrick started to lean toward the pizza with an open mouth. We all laughed for a bit ... it was cute.  Then, it got interesting as Papap put a slice of pizza into Patrick's mouth.  He immediately started to gum the pizza (no teeth at this point).  He got some cheese and a bit of crust, but mostly he was taking in the pizza sauce ... and loving every bit of it . Our little man's first solid food .....