My very good friends, Chris and Mark, had a baby on Saturday. Their third boy. Aren’t they incredibly brave? I admire them so much.
Maybe it’s because I’m a girl, or because I wasn’t quite old enough to really help raise my younger brother, or because my husband is the only boy out of five children, but until I met Chris and her family, I a: had no idea what to do with boys, and b: never ever even thought about having one of my own someday.
Now I know, thanks to Jonah and Jacob and Chris letting me babysit them numerous times over the last year and a half, that taking care of boys is the same as taking care of girls, except you don’t have to fix their hair when their braids fall out, and you do have to do things like remind them to close the bathroom door and explain multiple times why they are not allowed to pee in the bushes in the back yard. They get a little dirtier too, but they cry like girls do, and they like to cuddle on the couch also, although they tend to prefer doing so when no one is watching.
Now that I know these things, I would be okay with a boy of my own. They aren’t scary anymore, just messy and fun and loveable. And some of my favorite people on Earth.
And now there are three lovely little men in my life. I am overjoyed!
Everyone, meet my new favorite mini person!
Josiah Phillip!
Look at that nose! And those scrunchy lips! And that little wrinkle above his nose! And his little thumb nail! I got to spend several hours with him yesterday, which included feeding him, talking to him while he looked around, talking to Jacob so he wouldn’t feel like I didn’t love him anymore, and letting Josiah sleep on me so I could covertly smell his head. Is there anything better in the whole world than the smell of new-baby head?! Tyler said that is weird, so maybe it’s a woman thing. Or maybe it really is strange. I don’t know. What I do know, is that the smell of clean new-baby makes my insides tingle. It’s like a drug. I could just sit there and smell him all day. So I did.
Also on my list of addictions: new-baby feet. Look at those tiny toes! And those little wrinkles! Be still my beating heart. They were so soft. I’d run my finger over them, and he’d coo. And then I’d melt.
Here they are again, in case you are not also convinced of the puddle-inducing effects of new-baby feet:
Another totally addicting thing: new-baby tushes. I decided not to post a picture of his diapered little self though, since I’m already pushing the bounds of decency with my obsessive baby sniffing. (Chris, you can thank me later.) New-baby hands are also cute, but Josiah is in the fist phase, where he’s not quite sure what to do with his hands yet, so he makes fists a lot, and this makes picture-taking rather complicated.
Sigh. I’m in love.
Also in love are his big brothers. They haven’t quite got the whole gentleness concept down yet, but they sure are cute. Jonah has taken to trying something on himself first, say stroking his own hair, and if it doesn’t hurt him, he has decided it will also not hurt the baby.
Jacob, on the other hand, has taken to calling him “my baby,” as though he were the one who grew Josiah from seed, and is now the sole care taker of said young seedling. He is also very obsessed with being in any pictures I take. Poor guy is used to being the youngest, and I don’t think he quite knows what to do with being a big brother as of yet. He already wants to get a third Wii remote so Josiah can play too, though, so I’m sure he’ll get the hang of big-brothering soon.
Brotherly love.
Also, when Jonah got home from school yesterday, he turned the corner of the couch, laid eyes on his newest baby brother, and broke out in the biggest grin I have ever seen. I melted a little bit more. I basically returned home one big pile of goo. And let me tell you, it’s hard to drive in a liquified state.
Two of my three favorite little men. Could this picture possibly handle any more cuteness?!
Anyway. This is my new favorite guy. He will probably continue to be my favorite mini-human until I have one of my own, and then he’ll just have to be content with second place. But it’s okay, Chris and I have a plan which includes Josiah marrying my daughter and us sharing incredibly cute grandbabies someday. It’s a good plan. I’m already indoctrinating Josiah, whispering my plan in his sleeping ear. Maybe the subliminal messages will stick for twenty some-odd years. It’s totally worth a try.
Lovely Little Things 