My Little Big Boy

Leyton is all of two years and eight months old. Last night marked the latest in a series of milestones for this young man; he slept in underwear instead of a pull-up. I am happy to report that all was dry this morning. This is awesome. I'm sure there will be accidents to come, but this was a huge first step for him and I wasn't sure if he'd even be open to the idea of sleeping without a pull-up. But he was excited to go to bed in underwear like a big boy and he came through once again. This kid has been a rock star since the day he was born.

I am told that twos are terrible, but that hasn't been the case with him. Leyton has far surpassed every expectation anyone has ever put upon him. When he was born, the doctors said we'd spend six weeks in Columbus as he recovered from surgery thanks to his gastroschisis. Instead, Leyton blew past every milestone, suffered no set backs, and went home in 24 days.

I don't know for sure, because I am his dad afterall, but it seems to me like he's advanced for his age in terms of his speech and his reasoning. How can you tell, as a parent, if your child is beautiful or if you just think they are because you love them? Not a day goes by that I'm not amazed by something he does or says.

Recently, Leyton learned a knock-knock joke. In true two-year-old fashion, he tells it this way: "Knock Knock" (who's there?) "Banana" (banana who?) "Poop! Pee!" He thought it was hilarious. Then he comes to me and says "say knock knock", so I did and he said who's there. After he said banana who, I said "poop" and he said "nooo... Orange, apple, and pineapple. And Grape!" So we went through the whole joke again, with me telling it. When I delivered this new punch-line, he smiled widely and said "Good!" as if to encourage my learning of the new joke.

Leyton is tiny. I think he weighs all of about 25 lbs. Amity is only 15 months old and she is close to the same weight. He's small, but he's always been an independent boy. I suppose this is caused by the amount of time he had to spend without being held and sleeping in his enclosed box in the hospital. He never slept with Valerie and me. He also never caused much problems in sleeping through the night and he's never given us grief about going to bed when we say it's time. In fairness, none of our kids have been a problem in that regard.

I think it's difficult for a child to forge out his own identity when he has three siblings, especially so when he's the third of four. But Leyton hasn't ever seemed concerned about that sort of thing. He'll play on his own or in groups and while he is a bit territorial about toys or where he thinks he should sit, he's truly been a blessing to raise. He is a happy boy and he melts my heart every single day. He might not have been in the plans, but I couldn't imagine myself without him.

I'm so very proud of the way he's developed and I know I owe a ton of credit to Valerie and also to Sebastian and Lillian for setting the examples for him to follow. He's a remarkable little guy. And more than that, I think I would think he's remarkable even if I wasn't his dad.