Week 2.10: Another Fateful Moment

So, here is Week 2.10: Another Fateful Moment...(finally). This week's blog is dedicated to my nephew, Joey, who turned 5 on October 14th. Yikes. How did that come and go so quickly?!?!

Well, any way you slice it, he's 5. We celebrated his actual birthday with pizza and Toy Story 2 in 3D at the theater. Then, the weekend following his birthday we had a party with some of his friends and family...I believe a good time was had by all. You can judge for yourself at the end of this post by viewing the slideshow I made.

But before that, for Joey's Fifth Birthday and Another Fateful Moment, I'd like to share five(ish) of my favorite memories of my little boy Joe. The following are in no particular order and addressed directly to Joey.

#1: My dear Joe, the first thing I want to record as a favorite memory is our movie-going experience. From day to day, you tend to pick a "favorite" person. 8 out of 10 times, Pops is your favorite person at our house. Nana, Natalie, Jonathan and I all get the leftovers. Conveniently for me (and very inconveniently for him) Pops was out of town on business. For some reason, you picked me as the person you wanted to hold you/carry you/sit next to you/hold your hand etc. I am always very pleased to be your favorite...although I have no idea how or why you pick a favorite or when it will change.

Anyway, at the theater, you insisted that you sat the furthest in (with me next to you) and Aunt Nooch and Mommy on the other side of me. We got there before the previews and I handed you your 3D glasses...which were 5 times too big for your head. I rigged a "strap" for the back out of the plastic sleeve your glasses came in. You looked awesome. But before the previews even finished you had finished with the glasses. You proudly declared that your vision was in excellent condition and that you had no need for the glasses. "I can see fine. I don't need these." In fact, the day after the movie, you still told people with pride that you watched Toy Story 2 just fine without the glasses. I guess you knew best because you still laughed at all the right parts and cheered at all the right parts and said, "To infinity and beyond!" at all the right parts. Who needs those glasses anyway? Definitely not you.

#2: In recent times you have begun to recognize letters. Your favorite letter is "J." I wonder why. During the previews of the movie you saw the release date for Toy Story 3 (which is June 18th, 2010) and you were ecstatic to see that something on the screen had a "J." The reason I tell you this is that I love how proud you are of what you are learning at school and also because I absolutely and entirely love your exuberance. Your happy makes me happy. Thank you for all the times you have done that for me over the past 5 years.

#3: This past summer I moved out of Nana and Pops' house to live with my friend, Cory. You love Cory and you've used your wiles on her several times to extract cookies from her (which she always seems to have on hand). You also love that we have a swimming pool at our house (which you frequently asked to use all summer long). Your favorite part of the pool area is the "little" swimming pool...which is actually supposed to be a hot tub. But somehow, it was never hot. So you called it the "little pool." This assessment is probably most accurate, even though I don't think it was built for you like you think it was.

I tell you about my move and the pool for two reasons. First, my move. Almost as soon as I moved out, Nana turned my room into her personal hotel suite. The entire family refers to that room as "Nana's Hotel Room." In the midst of the moving and trying to wrap your head around me not living with Nana and Pops, you had a discussion with Pops about where I had gone. After processing what you could, you said, "Pops, I'll nevew evew leave you. I'll stay with you foevew." I know you mean that. You and Pops have definitely got the "best friends" thing down. No matter how old you get or how many other things change, I'm sure you'll always love Pops.

#4: Going back to the pool thing. This past summer you wore SpiderMan swim trunks. You also had a blue floatie that you had to be strapped into that made you look like you were hanging out of a sharks mouth. Too cool. You loved the pool and swimming. I couldn't be more proud of you.

At the pool you made friends with a little girl named Jordan. It was a passing friendship. You didn't get to play together for long at all. But you didn't waste time or over analyze the situation. You almost instantly befriended Jordan in spite of the fact that she mostly hung around outside the pool gates and talked to us. Turns out, you both had a few things in common. One of the things you both talked about was how your daddy doesn't live with you. I almost cried when I heard your conversation. It was something that was entirely outside of my control but I want you to know: I'm really sorry your mommy and daddy don't live together anymore. I wish it was different for you, my Joe.

Anyway, I'm wanting to tell you what I love about you for your 5th birthday, so let's get back to that...I love that you are always ready to make a new friend. Weeks went by and we didn't see Jordan, but you would still ask for her by name. I bet right now, in almost November, if I asked you what her name was (before telling it to you in this post) you would have total recall. Your memory amazes me. And even more amazing is how open your heart is. You don't know a stranger and when you greet kids on the playground you call out for them with: "friend." Yes. Literally. You shout out: "Hey, friend!" and race over to them without any regard for how you will be received. You just assume everyone will want to be your friend. I love it. And I've learned from it, too.

#5: Just like the song you can hear with this blog, you have given me everything. Everything your little mind and heart can give, you've poured out. Sure, there have been surly faces and bad words and the "heads" you throw around as insults (as in: "stinkyhead," "foodhead," "cewealhead"...anything goes with "head," according to you). But more importantly, you have given me an innumerable amount of smiles, hugs, laughs, imaginative play times and priceless expressions. In response to my, "Sorry, Charlie."..."No. I'm not Chawlie. I'm Snoopy. Pops is Chawlie. Chawlie Bwown. You need to wemembew that, okay?" "You can twust this face" "Thewe's something in hewe that's not chockit and it's not fine" "And...ummm...let's see, what else?" "Pops? What's youw numbuw?" "Sowwy, Ladies," and, of course, "I love you, Auntie Sawah." Oh, JoeJoe. How I love you. Always.

And now, please enjoy the slideshow with a song called Always by Robert Scheffler.