Hey dude.
This time three years ago, I was probably sitting in that green glider we have in the corner now. There’s a good chance that I had a dish full of dried pineapple and almonds, and that I was watching Northern Exposure. OrFriends.
I probably wasn’t actually watching it, though. When I think of the time when you were born, what sticks out the most in my mind are the hours I spent staring at your face. I had gone my whole life just assuming that I’d have babies and have a family and it would be cool, the end. I had no idea what that actually meant. I had no idea that I would get this automatic companion . . . someone who would see me all day, every day for the next few years of my life. When I get frustrated and yell, you forgive me every time. When I think something is funny, you laugh right along with me, even though you have no idea what I’m laughing at. You tell me I’m pretty when I come home from a facial.
I could go on and on with the sappy stuff, but what it all boils down to is that I love you. I love you so much that it randomly hurts for no reason at all. These are some of the things you say and do right now, because I don’t ever want to forget them:
You like to cook “termato” soup. You also like to play games on the “kerpeeter.”
You love love love playing with your “fwiends.”
You love to get all up in Lucy’s business and say “Hi Looser Gooser. HI LOOSERGOOSER!”
Last week you said, “I wuv snuggling daddy. I wuv him.”
Sometimes you hold my hand when you watch cartoons. Sometimes.
For a while there, you liked to snuggle “Zelda” when you sleep. (It’s actually a Link doll, but it’s close enough.)
You will take anything you have in your hands (pretzels, blocks, bowling pins) and play imagination games with them. You make the little things walk around and say, “Where my fwiend?” “I right here!”
Five is the biggest number in the whole world to you. When I ask you if you want a treat, you say “Five uh um!”
Sometimes you fart and make yourself cry. That, I’m telling you, is hilarious. You’ll appreciate the humor in that someday, I swear.
Lately, instead of saying yes to something, you say, “Yep sir, yep sir.”
You still pretty much only eat carbs and cheese. And yogurt tubes. Remember that one time you ate celery? Just the one time?
You love your grandmas and grandpas like CRAZY.
You like to give your daddy “butt bombs.” Those look like crazy pro-wrestler moves, and I’m glad you give them to him and not me.
I know there are about a bajillion more things I could write here, but I think that’s enough for now. I’ll be back with more Charlie-isms in the future.
I love you, little dude. Three looks good on ya.