Time Flies

In a little under 3 weeks, Ian will celebrate his first birthday.  The big question is whether or not he will be walking or crawling to the celebration.  Just this week, he has begun to stumble around the house behind a little toy walker.  He looks like a wind-up doll pushing a vacuum cleaner while wildly altering direction as it bounces off walls and furniture.  But if we remove the walker, he drops to the ground like someone who just heard the music stop in a game of musical chairs.  But trust me, without that walker, he'll refuse to hear the music start back up.

At this age, the only time Elliott had hold of that walker was to toss it out of his way as he ran through the house.  I try to avoid comparing Ian's development to Elliott's milestone chart, but sometimes I just can't help myself.  When I do make comparisons, it is more to marvel at the differences in two boys with the same genetic makeup than it is to size up Ian's progress.  He is, thankfully, meeting all the milestones of a healthy development.

And where Ian may lag behind Elliott in some areas, he surpasses him in others.  For example, Ian eats ribeye steaks, chicken, bologna, pork.  For desert, he eats the full plate of food that Elliott leaves behind.  And after dinner, he makes it his sole purpose to forage under the kitchen table saving table scraps from a migration up the hose of a vacuum cleaner.  You get the picture.

Elliott. He eats oatmeal.  Sometimes with milk, sometimes without.  He also eats Cheerios.  Sometimes with milk, sometimes without.  He ate a hot dog once, but that was only because we promised him M&Ms if he did.  He never ate another one.  He decided he would rather poop out cheerios than eat hot dogs for his chocolate rewards.  I'm wondering if he might have been born with vegetarianism.  It surely doesn't run in my family.  In fact, I'm not sure there's a single vegetarian sitting on one branch of my family tree.  I hope there is a cure. 

At this young age, I do see the differences in them.  I imagine over time they will grow more different than alike. 

I frequently ask Elliott: "Where did I get you?"  He'll respond, "From heaven."

One day he asked me, "Did Ian come from heaven too?"

I looked over at Ian and caught him waiting on my answer with this devilish grin.  It is a grin that seems permanently fixed to Ian; a unique sort of grin that I don't think I've ever seen on Elliott.

After I was sure horns weren't going to poke through Ian's head, I turned to Elliott and answered, "Elliott, I can only hope you two both have heaven as a return address, but I am concerned."

I hope you'll enjoy the video below and gain deeper insight into my worries.