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February 26, 2003
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Silly Family Names
Do you have a silly (and perhaps a little embarrassing) name you call your child? I remember my childhood friend, Ruth being called “Rootie Tootie” by her parents, and her sister Erin being “Eenie Beenie Peenie Weenie”. I STILL cringe when my Dad calls me “Sweet Toot”. (Oh my GOSH … how did he come up with that one? I don’t want to know.) We’ve had a few nicknames for Aidan these past couple of years. When I was pg, we called him “Peanut”, b/c that’s exactly what he looked like at our first ultrasound … a little peanut. These days however, he answers to the name “Shookie/Shookie Bookie” (rhymes with shoe). I have no idea where it came from, or how it started, but we use it so much that even other family members have started to address him by the name. Poor kid.
2 Years Old …
Last year at this time, I was having a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea that Aidan could possibly be one years old. The previous year flew by so quickly, it didn’t seem possible that he was celebrating his first birthday already. Maybe it’s because for the first couple of months of his life we were so sleep-deprived that the days, weeks and months melted together into one sickeningly blissful lump of time.
This year however, so much has happened and Aidan has changed and grown so much, I can honestly say that it really feels like he’s two years old. Actually, I’ve felt like he’s been two for a while already. He definitely LOOKS like he’s two, and he’s started to talk and ACT like he’s two as well. 2 years have gone by since he was born? Yep, that feels about right. Gone is our baby, and in his place we have discovered a sweet-natured, silly, laughing little boy. And so, to my sweet boy, I would like to say …
Dearest Aidan,
What can I say to you, who has changed my life utterly and completely? I feel like in the past year my heart has grown a million times, and I have grown to love you in ways I never thought possible. You’ve made me happier than I have ever been before, and I know that the joy you have brought to my life is only going to increase as you grow up.
I’ve been thinking recently of all the things you’ve learned to do this past year. They may seem insignificant to you, but your Dad and I have been thrilled over and over again, watching you learn to:
• Walk: In a matter of 3 days, you went from holding onto the couches and furniture to walking throughout the entire house, all by yourself. It’s funny, but when you started to walk, I could hardly remember the days when you COULDN’T.
• Talk: Gone are the days of “Mama” and “Dada”. You are picking up new words left and right, and recently started saying complete sentences. Your first 3-word sentence (which you said just last week) was “Close da door”. While I sometimes think you’re speaking to me in Japanese, getting to actually talk with you has been one of the best things about this past year for both your Dad and I.
• Run: You LOVE to run in a big circle through the rooms of our home. Round and round you go, stopping only when you take a corner too fast and slide onto the floor.
• Jump: I don’t know how you picked this up, but every once in a while I’ll catch you jump, jump, jumping around the room, with both of your little feet coming about an inch up off the ground (looking quite proud of yourself, I might add).
• Use the Potty: I know you’re going to kill me for this someday, but helping you be potty-trained has honestly been a JOY for me. Not because I was dying to stop changing diapers, but because I believe it’s an HONOR to be entrusted with the responsibility of teaching you all the little things in life. (I’m also pretty darn proud that you asked to start this process all on your own!)
• Express love and affection for others: Watching how much you love Nonny and Papa, Gobby and Grandpa Ron, “Koi”, J-P, “Cousin Hannah” and Uncle Nafan has brought so much joy to our whole family. The million hugs and kisses you freely give, as well as the pure joy we can see in your eyes when any one of them walks through the door melts our hearts a thousand times over.
• Pray: Aidan, your Nonny’s favorite Scripture says, “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance”. How true! What a joy it is to see you fold your little hands and bow your head to give thanks to God. Your Dad and I rejoice that you will know the blessing and protection of the Cross from a young age. Truly, the inheritance you have been given is one of great delight.
I also want to thank you.
• For the (literally) hundreds of hugs and kisses you give me throughout the day, most of which I don’t even have to ask you for. I love how you wrap your little arms around me and kiss me so hard I think my teeth will break.
• For how quick you are to ask for forgiveness when you have done something wrong, and how your tender heart has taught ME to ask forgiveness of both you and your Dad more quickly.
• For your oh-so-active imagination. I love how you will pick up my cell phone (or the T.V. remote if you can’t find a phone) and pretend to talk to Nonny or Gobby, complete with asking unintelligible questions and tossing your head back and laughing.
• For the silly way you will ask your Dad and I for something, and when we repeat your question back to you, you say “Okay!”, like we had come up with the idea ourselves. =)
• For loving books and movies as much as I do. (At this very moment, you are sitting at my feet with a pile of books around you, pointing out to me your favorite animals and of course the BABIES)
• For sitting through a million episodes of “A Baby Story” with me, and for exclaiming, “BABY!” every time a new baby is born.
• For your sweet laugh and how it brightens my day, for the way you STILL love your “Ba-Ba”, for the way you reach out for me in the middle of the night and cuddle close with your arm around my neck, for all the amazing qualities you have brought out in your Daddy and how it has made me fall in love with him all over again.
But right now, at this very moment, I am most thankful for the way you just asked to sit in my lap and cuddle close into my arms, like you did on the day you were born. While I sit here looking at you with tears in my eyes, I am reminded that just like the love I had for you on that day 2 years ago pales in comparison to the love I feel for you today, so the love I feel for you today will not compare to the love that will grow this year and in the years to come. May God bless you and keep you this year, Aidan and may you come to know His fathomless love for you. “Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love”. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
I love you, my dear son,
Mom
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