Thursday, June 25, 2009

Earnest ChrisTophers

This morning Topher and his dad woke up at about the same time (8 am. Not bad for either of them!) And so they sat at the kitchen table and ate some Honey Nut Cheerios while staring at each other. And I sat across the table staring at them. Oh how I love my Christophers!

Let me start with my little one, who has hit a ton of amazing milestones this week! First of all, he went from being the Three-Toothed Wonder, to being the Five-Toothed Wonder. Kinda out of nowhere. Or at least it seems like it was out of nowhere because the sole tooth that Topher had on top was HUGE. It was about the same width as the two bottom teeth combined. Yes, this made him REALLY funny looking. Really. But all of a sudden, crazy-third-tooth's new friend is just about as big and wide in such a short time. The fifth tooth is beside crazy-third-tooth, and is not crazy and therefore barely worth mentioning.

Then Topher finally realized that we've been practicing eating with a spoon for months now, and that it's not that cute to get food on his forehead everytime he eats. (Ok. It is cute. But so annoying to have to bathe him after every meal!) This made the mirrored Christopher Sr and Jr breakfast eating scene from this morning all the more real, since they were both able to get their spoons from their bowls to their mouths, with minimal spillage.

Third milestone- occassionally, if you give Topher a piece of food, or something that he is wanting, he will say 'Thank You' unprompted. The fact that he says 'Thank You' (or something that sounds a lot like it) at all at this stage of his life (in comparison to where Lily was at this stage in her life) astounds me.

And finally, Topher just started walking this weekend! We told him he needed to start walking for Sungu's birthday, and he did! He has been cruising along furniture for months. He has also been walking around with assitance from our toy firetruck for months. But walking on his own was just not something he was interested in. The last week and a half he started standing on his own in the middle of a room. He started getting brave and taking three or four steps. Then he finally 'mastered' The Walk in time for Sungu's birthday. What a gift! (To me. Sungu could care less.)

Anyhoo, as I have been watching my son develop in strides over the last few days, I have just had a sense of pride and amazement. When I look at Topher, the word 'earnestness' pops into my head. Even for being 15 months, he is Deep. He is funny, yet serious. He is cute, yet mature. But his true mark of earnestness is that he is so sincere and serious in all that he does. When he eats, when he poops, when he walks, when he stops to hug any and every stuffed animal that crosses his path, he just has this look on his face that says 'I am thinking about what I am doing, I am trying really hard, and I am happy doing it.' And what more can a parent ask for than that?

And now on to Christopher Sr. For Father's Day, Topher 'gave' Chris a copy of 'Mama Mia!' the musical. It came with a note that said 'One day I might want to be in a musical dad, but I know that you will support me in it.' I asked Chris a few days ago what he would think if Topher ended up not liking sports at all- to watch, or to play. And Chris thought about it for a second, and said that he felt that he has wasted a lot of his life playing, but especially watching sports (of course, this epiphany does not mean he is going to stop 'wasting' his life watching sports, because apparently he has come too far...) But God has truly blessed Chris with a love for so many different types of things. He loves 'macho' things like sports, and movies with blood and guns, but he also loves 'not macho' things like musicals, and doing word puzzles with his wife and sister-in-law. So pretty much anything that our kids choose to be interested in, they will have a dad who will earnestly support them all the way. And what more can a child ask for than that?

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