Smelling the Roses

My son is often described as a busy boy (most often this is an understatement of epic proportions), but let it not be said that he can not take time to enjoy the simple things in life; the smell of beautiful flowers or the sweet taste of French fries. There are some things that make him slow down, even appear to stop for a moment; Kermit the frog, large trucks, wind chimes and African American women (my he loves that ashanti). I suppose that if I added up the amount of time each day in which he stayed still (of course including the 13 hours a day he sleeps - by the way, isn't it ridiculous that children get to sleep so much, I mean really, shouldn't everyone get to sleep this much?!) it would still out weigh the time in which he is tormenting his mother relentlessly. All of this is to say, that Parker is really more like a spring (or a snake), one moment he coils still with potential energy and the next, he is moving with the energy that only a little, and busy boy can have.

My Sweet Angel

The question is, "Which one is the Angel?" Truth be told, this is the first time I had them both calm and in the same room together since we switched to formula. Life has a tendency to be fast paced, filled with events and deadlines. So a moment like this one was just too special not to document and display (despite the threats of my angel to not photograph the angelic moment and display it in all of its heavenly glory.) The other side to the truth is this, "If life was peaceful it would be dull." I wouldn't ask for an ounce less of energy from either of my angels anytime or place (except of course at night while I try to sleep, my mattress, now that's my angel.)

A Symbiotic Relationship

In symbiotic relationships, two or more parties coexist in a state that mutually benefits both parties. In such relationships, both parties often depend on the other for elements necessary for their survival that they cannot provide for themselves. This dependence, while limiting, is also a great exponential force allowing the whole to become greater than the sum of its parts. Often such relationship are complex, comprising many organisms and subjects that provide for one another in a chain of transactions that ultimately bring great satisfaction to all parties involved. (milk, frosted mini wheat, spoon, bowl, father, son - and the chain goes on and on.)

A Father's Pipe Dream

If only I could throwback my life one year. My son was a little bit smaller, a little more willing to be held, and a little bit less independent (now he wakes up each morning a bitter young man, angry at the world that he still sleeps in a crib and is not free to move about according to his own stubborn will). If I could some how stop the slow creep of time now, so that he would always and forever call me, "DaaDaa", and make that sweet "maaa" sound as he grabs my head and turns it so he can kiss my lips (he does this often in response to me kissing his mother). If I could keep him from learning to run faster than he does now, or keep him from learning to open doors that will certainly one day lead him away from me, I would almost be tempted beyond my ability to resist. But I have learned already, in the short time of being a father, and mostly in the last year, that I simply do not have the power to hold him back, and neither would I want to. As time passes he only grows more independent and needs me less, but even more, as time passes I love him more.