Three year old smile
My son is turning three years old. Birthdays are important to kids. As adults we make a kids birthday important. We remember that day distinctly and it’s a celebration of bringing this little life into the world. We want birthdays to be special for kids, when they become adults somehow birthdays fade into the background of our lives.
Tristan turning three is significant for a number of reasons. Foremost on my mind though is that I remember being three years old. Not the day to day occurrences but I have clear memories of things when I was three. The idea that some event in his life is going to be remembered when he is an adult is poignant. Now, his days aren’t just about building one event on top of another, each day being one more thing that helps in his development as a person as it has been for the last three years. Tristan will begin to form memories he’ll have for the rest of his life.
Raising a child makes you think of these kinds of things. There are topics that would never have entered my mind before he came into our life. So much can change by bringing a baby into the world. I’m sitting here thinking about what it’s like to be a three year old, remembering the little flashes of memory from my own childhood at that age, and it puts a smile on my face.
There are people who can’t understand why anyone would want to have a kid. Even more who can’t understand why I would choose to be a stay at home father. Take on the woman’s role and all that hubbub. Those people, will never understand the way it feels to lay in bed at night and smile just from some cute little thing your son did during the day. Those people can’t imagine children as anything but screaming, selfish, impatient, needy beings who have to have their dirty asses changed and the sticky mess washed off their faces every second of every day for the rest of their lives.
There are days. Yes, there are days when I’m right there with them. In the end though, my life is more complete with my son being a part of it than if I’d never had him at all. Sure I’d get to go have a round of golf whenever I like, or sleep-in in the morning once and a while, but I’d never get to have this smile on my face. This smile that comes because 3 years ago, my wife gave birth to a 9 lb. baby boy who loves every minute of his life.
