A man doesn't truly know what fear is until he has children. My son, my only child, was born a few days after I turned 40. He was a month early and spent time in the incubator because his temperature wasn't right and he was way underweight.
I was there when he popped out of the womb and I was the first to touch him. After they had him wrapped up I went out in the hallway and cried like a baby. My mother was shaken because she thought he didn't make it. She had never seen me cry since I was a child.
Up until then I had lived like a reckless, wild man. But then everything changed. It all became about him. Keeping him safe and setting a good example. I watched over him like a hawk. Wouldn't go to sleep at night until he had fallen asleep first. The first two years neither my wife or I ever slept through the night, not once.
I moved us from San Jose, CA to Maryland the day after he turned three because I felt it wasn't a safe place for him to grow up(ironically a couple of years ago, he and his wife moved to California).
I homeschooled him and we were best friends. Taught him how to play guitar and turned him on to all the music that was out there. Then around age 15 I became the enemy. Someone who stood in his way and didn't understand him. His door was always closed and when I went in to see him he would give me that look. It's normal for teenagers to do that but it broke my heart.
Today he's 24 and has a wife, two dogs and a cat. He has two Bachelor's degrees and is going for a Master's degree because he wants to teach in college. He calls me once a week. It all went by in the blink of an eye and I miss those days when he was a little boy greatly but am grateful for the experience of having raised him.
Thanks for the pics everyone. If you have little children, enjoy every minute of it because it goes by faster than you can imagine.
Hey Jugg...show her this pic and wish her a happy birthday from the folks at ROD.
