Guest Blog: Jeremiah's First Digit

Jeremiah, our son, hit his first digit today. And since this is (at least to us) a momentous occasion, we thought that I (Evan, Jessica's husband) would have the honor of blogging his day.

The actual birthday party won't be until this Saturday, the 8th of March. Still, there are still some pretty exciting things that occurred today:

• The first thing didn't actually happen today, but one year ago on this day. One year ago at 12:35 pm in the Birthing Center of the Silverton Hospital, my son took his first breath of fresh air. At that point he was already 9 months and 2 days old (he was 2 days late) and was ready to continue his growing, but this time on the outside of mommy. And so with much joy our son went from his mother's belly to her chest. He's remained there many days since. I suppose, since he was already alive 9 months and 2 days when he was born, that means he has been alive for 21 months and 2 days. He's already an old timer.

• The second exciting thing about today again wasn't today, but a year ago. You see, our beautiful baby boy was born on a special day. A math day. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a history teacher through and through, but a little math distinction is kind of cool in my book. Jeremiah was born March 3, 2007 or 03/05/07... which are three consecutive prime numbers. And, he was born at 12:35 in the afternoon. If you divide 12 by the number of fingers (not including the thumb) on Jeremiah's left hand (four), you get 3. Then if you divide 35 by 5, you get 7. Or in other words, our son was born at 3, 5, 7 on 03/05/07.

• The third thing that I would like to share about today actually happened today. For some reason, as though his mind and body knew that today he was one years breathing, Jeremiah has made leaps and bounds in his development. Its all in the little things too. One example is that normally in the bathtub he is very docile. Not tonight! Tonight he started splashing and splashing and splashing. And when I would tap my hand on the side of the tub, he started doing it right next to mine keeping perfect time. Also, when I told him to put his toys into the tub at the beginning and to take them out at the end, he did so with such understanding and seemingly happiness. He seemed pleased to follow directions.

These are not the only things that I've noticed about my son today, but they are a few of the cute things that have just warmed my heart. It is a great privilege to be a father. Tonight, watching my son play in the bathtub, it was almost as though I were watching myself. It was surreal but very pleasant. I have the joy of raising my son. In a sense, I am raising myself. That's one digit down. Let's make it to two.

Mornings...

So here it is the morning of 5am shopping and freezing cold weather. Evan went out early this morning to get a few electronics at the sales while Jeremiah and I stayed home and "slept" (which basically means Jeremiah tossed and turned in our bed and I was kept awake by trying to keep him from rolling off). At the moment he is talking to himself in his crib where he is playing. I am writing because this morning I think I discovered one reason why God created babies.

Here it is: babies wake up and are happy to be alive and awake and are ready for the day as soon as their eyes open. which for them means being loved and playing with toys (sounds like a pretty good existence to me). This makes their parents happy and makes their day better (for a time). So each morning for a few moments at least, Jeremiah is happy with the world and his role in it thus making me happy to see him be that way. Unfortunately this happy awakeness doesn't tend to last long and the real world sets back in where he can't play with all that he wants or has to have his diaper changed.

Oh well, at least we have glimpses.