SHOCK AND AWE (by Larry)

Our lives have been shocked by your arrival in the best way possible. For the past 365 days, we have seen you grow and explore and climb stairs and comprehend. You can say four words awesomely well at this point: Mama, Dada, Ball, and Poop (that last one was my little contribution, of course). We love how you crawl, see something in front of you, throw it behind you, and continue on course. You go from sitting to standing to sitting to standing. I yearn daily to hear you giggle; if I don’t get one out of you each day, I don’t feel I accomplished my role as Dad. Everyone that comes in contact with you immediately falls in love with you. Your pigtails combined with your intoxicating smile are your biggest selling points. You love magazines and paper, and love to remove them from the office bookshelf and throw them everywhere. You love cupboards and love to take stuff out and throw it everywhere. You love balls of all sizes (and I mean that in the most innocent way possible). You love to go into the bathroom and chew on tampons (contenders for Mother and Father of the Year, by the way). You let mommy and I sleep through the night and we love you for it (we wish you would wake up just a tad later though, but we really can’t complain). You like your pointer finger, and like touching pointer fingers with me. You like it when I gnaw on your sides, and you pretty much giggle every time. You like it when mommy and I make funny faces. You like it when you are in your high chair eating and I sneak around on the floor and chew on your feet. You are a trooper when mommy and I take the trailer out and you have to sit in your car seat for hours on end. You like eating sand; its probably like eating Grape Nuts from a digestive stand point. The first couple of weeks of your life made mommy and I paranoid, and I all of a sudden have Super-Hearing like Jamie Sommers (for those of you too young, she was the Bionic Woman, played by Lindsay Wagner, and had Super-Hearing. This was a spin off of The Six Million Dollar Man, who had Super Eyesight. The Six Million Dollar Man was the Six Million Dollar Man because of how much it cost to make him Bionic. His name was Steve Austin and he was played by Lee Majors, and he had a fling with Jamie. Jamie had a bionic dog who was afraid of fire named Max, I think. I’ll have to Google that at work next week. TANGENT!!!). There are parts of my heart that have been accessed due only to you. I like how you clap your hands when I say “YAYYYY!!!” as if you are proud of yourself. You may be. Even though I don’t like it when you try and touch my TV, I like it when you look at me first and smile because you know I don’t like it when you touch my TV; I try and keep a stern face but I never can. I like how you do every item in “Pat the Bunny” as quick as possible; I think you like sticking your finger through Mummy’s ring best. I like how you fall asleep on my shoulder when the White Noise machine is turned on for either of your naps. I like how your idea of a kiss is a wide open mouth, but will give a kiss on command. You have lots of Aunties and Uncles and Tantes and Omas and Opas and Nanas and Grandpas and Great Grandmas and Cousins. Cougar loves you as much as we do.

Thank you for being here; thank God and Mommy and the doctors for bringing you here; thank you for making here the greatest place to be because of you. Continue to grow and explore and climb stairs through the next year. We will be as proud of you then as we are now. Happy Birthday BeeBo.