M is for Michael

On New Year’s Day, 2015, at around 10:55pm, my son Michael was born. That was two and a half years ago now and watching him grow and develop over that time has been a singular joy.

I didn’t want to turn this into some kind of biography so I’m just going to show you a few pictures that I found on my laptop and say how I feel about them and when they were taken.

This was him getting curious and shuffling around on the grass at Osterley Park. He was just starting to move and hold his head up to look around. I loved seeing his eyes search around for things, just wanting to take in the world and see what it’s all about.

This was on the beach in Ostend. It was our third wedding anniversary and we were sipping prosecco in our tent while the boy sat and played with his toys. I love this picture because it shows his fantastic smile.

This is us in Sardinia. While Serena took her nephews up a trail to the top of a hill, the boy and I stayed at the bottom and went for a little stroll around the more level paths. I love this little backpack thing we have, although he does have a habit of grabbing my ears.

He’s getting so much more confident these days. Here he is in Murray Park, walking on the ropes. It’s great watching him develop new skills and get more confident with these things.

He also loves the outdoors. This is him at the Devil’s Punchbowl just a few weeks ago. He’s started picking up big sticks and waving them around which is great for the nerves.

Being a father is the most challenging job I’ve ever taken on. It’s also the most rewarding. I never gave much thought to what it would be like. Whatever I thought, it’s nothing like it. It’s a maelstrom of worries and sacrifices. These are some of the more irrational worries that I’ve had: I was pushing him along in his buggy by the side of a stream near the Stoop in Twickenham. It was really quiet and there was no-one else in sight. I had a sudden fear that, if I had a heart attack, his buggy might roll off into the river and nobody would be there to help. I also worried that he would be able to climb out of his cot (he can’t) and get out of his bedroom window (he certainly can’t). I thought that I could put a mattress at the bottom just in case (really!), but then I thought that if he did fall out and land on the mattress, he would be locked out in the back garden in the dark and he would be cold, scared and wouldn’t know what to do!

The turbulence that these worries cause in my mind are made completely calm by a warm wave of love that I feel every time I look at him, every time I listen to him breathing when he’s asleep, every time he puts his arms around me or rests his tired head on my chest, every time he offers me a grape and then puts in his own mouth when I try to take it and especially when he holds my hand or says he loves me.

I never thought I’d be OK with wiping someone else’s bogeys on my arm. I never thought that I would be willing to suck bogeys out of someone else’s nose. As it turns out, that stuff isn’t such a big deal. I’ve got the easy side of things, anyway. I get to go to work. My wife should take the credit for just how wonderfully Michael is turning out; what a happy little person he is. I’ll talk more about her when I get to ‘S’ so I won’t say too much now.

That’s all I’ll say about my little man.

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this, then please take a look at my other posts in the Blogging fro A to Z Challenge.

Richard

A is for Austin (Blogging from A to Z)

F is for Frank Herbert

G is for Gosforth

H is for Heathrow

I is for India