Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Happy Birthday (plus a month) to the Boy!




Oh, Mas. We love you so. You have been an uber-challenge lately and utterly delightful at the same time.



You have taken on the size-changing quality of Momo. Put Momo next to a chihuahua and she looks like a giant; put her next to a great dane and she looks like a chihuahua. You look like the biggest boy when you're next to the little ones at school, but you look so small next to the neighborhood 8-year-olds. We took the picture on the left because you suddenly turned 89 instead of 3. You wanted the window open to watch the kids on the street below and pulled your rocking chair up and requested a blanket for your lap. Note that the jacket on the back of your rocking chair is corduroy and has elbow patches. Awesome.






We love you for your big heart, your sharing, your love of music, and your FAQs. "How are you? How was your day? How is [this friend-of-yours-of-the-day] doing today? What are you doing? Who was at work today? Oh, how are they?" You're very tuned into people. You spread love at school and at home.













I know that, in time, I will have blocked out the times when I was convinced that an exorcism was needed, but we will always remember what a wonderful, special, polite, funny, loving, and musical boy you are. We can't wait to see the man you become.



Look Who's Walking!




There are those who thought this day would never come. There are those who thought this moment would come 5.5 months ago. Those would be the same people.

The girl of a thousand words (ok, maybe 100, but that's still ridiculous) has finally used some of that intense brain power to move those legs. Let's all recall that she expressed interest in walking at about 3 months old or so. She preferred to walk around with her hands being held. We were all nervous about her walking really early. Then early passed. We thought for sure she would walk before Mas did. He walked a few days before his first birthday. We thought wrong; her first birthday came and went. Every day we saw those moments of aaaaaaaaaalmost theeeeeeeerrrrreeeeeeee.

My mama told me to be patient. I told her that it was only frustrating because Shaifali so wanted to walk, as evidenced by her yelling at us when we ran out of finger-holding steam. Mama said, "you didn't walk until you were 14 months old. It will happen when it happens."

Then she spent a few days with her, and, within hours, she was saying, "just walk!"

Well now she's walking! Awesome! So did we get it on camera?

No.

Did we cry? Laugh? Hug? Cheer?

No.

Why not?

Well, apparently this lady doesn't put in enough time or something:














and I know I included my double-chinny picture--that's why you read this blog, right?





But this one does:




















That's right. Shaifali walked for the wonderful Kenzie. I was cleaning the garage and Kenzie came in and said, "she took 10 steps but wouldn't keep going!" I just started laughing. Superdad and I have been watching her every move to capture that first step. And, of course, the moment that we're not with her is the moment she chooses. Kenzie thought that I meant she wasn't walking consistently; she didn't realize that she hadn't taken any steps on her own.

Some would cry, but I just laughed and laughed. Luckily, we got to see it in action later, and now you can too: