new year's is for the birds

today is the day most people celebrate as the start of a new year. people take off work, watch football, shop, etc. all because a new year has started. what’s so cool about that? i am proposing a far greater reason to participate in festive activities on 1/1: jameson’s birthday.

yes, i may be biased, but i think the birth of this strapping young lad is a more worthy of celebration than some old tradition based on stars, the rotation of the earth around the sun and the ability of humankind to survive for 365 more days.

jameson is a special guy. i think he will always hold a special place in my and aim’s hearts because he was the first kid and he was the only one for about four years. he got in at ground level back when we were dirt poor students trying to figure out how to be parents. we know he wasn't after us just because of our money 'cause we didn't have any. the other two only came along after i got licensed as a cpa and was on track to becoming a lawyer. i'll always wonder whether they came and have stuck around because of the bling.

back to the man of the hour, all twenty-four of them.

jameson arrived in dramatic fashion. he was born on the first day of the year, so, naturally, he was a new year’s baby... but not just a new years baby, a millennium baby: the first baby of the decade born in the county where we were living at the time. kind of a fun way to start of the parenting experience. i don’t think we bought diapers for the first year of the kid’s life because of when he was born.

things worked out exactly how we planned. actually, they didn’t. jameson came 5 weeks early, so it was a bit of a surprise when aim woke me up around two in the morn and told me that she thought her water had broken. i realize i’m just a guy and it's a bit taboo for a guy to even try to talk about pregnancy as if he knows something about it, but i’ve always thought it would be kind of obvious if someone’s water broke unless you have a habit of wetting the bed. not so, i guess.

so, we weren’t sure if the water had broken, but we decided to play it safe and headed over to the hospital figuring they would send us home not long after getting there for a false start. turns out we were wrong. no sooner were we greeted by a bunch of nurses watching tv in the lobby when it was quickly determined that the cooper two was about to become a thing of the past.

like i said, the nurses were all watching tv when we got there. it had been a really slow night... an unusually slow night since the hospital we were at probably delivers more babies a year than any other hospital in the country. on this night, however, we were the only ones there. everyone must have still been out celebrating the new millennium. that or they were too worried about y2k... remember that farce? i do, in fact, i was a little concerned our kid might come out with three legs or something because of all the hype y2k was getting. actually, i don’t remember being very concerned about the whole y2k bit. i just wrote it off as some scare tactic created by the clinton administration to help get gore elected. that and that global warming crap.

turns out y2k was way overrated, but the birth of my and aim’s first kid was anything but. without a doubt the most amazing experience of my life up to that point and has since only been rivaled by the births of the other two boys. unreal. anecdotally speaking, on my and aim’s wedding invitation was printed a quote about love/marriage that said something to the effect of “when two being become one and yet remain two.” nice quote, good thought, but, in my humble opinion, the instance where two beings become three is probably even cooler. when jameson was born, aim rose to the occasion in that moment and crossed into the realm of the divine to meet jameson who was already there; and when i saw our little boy’s eyes for the first time, i joined them there for just a second and understood the gift of life and familial relationships, both temporally and spiritually, in a way i never had before.

enter jameson the wise.

as you, my blogging faithful know, i typically try to share a silly moment on the blog about someone close to me on that person’s birthday. jameson is no exception, but rather than rehash a personal experience this time, i thought i would share a lighthearted poem i wrote about jamebo’s birth for your reading enjoyment. so, in celebration of the kid who used to eat butter straight from the tub, projectile urinates with pinpoint precision, calls butterscotch butterscaratch, buys jewelry for his mom with his allowance money, and is the ideal older brother among other things, enjoy:

a new century was dawning
as well a new life
but one just not soon enough
for my child-laden wife

eight long months of discomfort
and times that were rough
if there were a towel she'd have thrown it
for she'd had enough

so i thought and i wondered
as my wife seemed to burst
and a plan i devised
on december the thirty-first

but our time was short
and i thought, just maybe
with the pull of some strings
we'd have the new year's baby

so i sat our son down
we spoke man to man
i explained the idea
and the strategy we planned

he then thought things over
in deep deliberation
he knew this would be it
with no reincarnation

so he made his decision
the first baby he'd be
and he started to knock
january 1st around 3

for him things looked good
an easy win he would savor
but another mom then arrived
and she was in labor

the mood soon grew tense
a pep talk was needed
so again we convened
and my counsel he heeded

defying all odds
he stuck to his decision
stared right into the eyes
of his newfound competition

he met it head on
and began to pull away
as the moon started to hide
and the night became day

grandparents and uncles
a few aunts and friends
were all cheering him on
yes, right 'til the end

a few critics and doomsdayers
then started to doubt
but around nine in the morn'
we all knew he'd come out

the end was now nearing
for mom's herculean chore
and provo's first of 2000
came at 9:24

emotions ran high
for the one that He'd sent us
we were so happy he'd come
our little jedi apprentice