Happy Birthday Vinny

My son is 7 years old today. He is in Washington DC today, going to the new Spy Museum with his Grandparents and his Aunt Karen and Uncle Matt.

Vin was conceived in Massachusetts and born in Michigan...between churches and with and without insurance coverage. He is 22 months younger than his sister, which at the time, was a pretty big hurdle. I remember coming home from the hospital with him, handing him off to my mom and asking for Mattie. He was a cranky baby, who didn't smile for months. He ate constantly. I remember falling asleep while nursing him one night, nearly dropping him off my lap. It took me awhile to warm up to him, quite honestly. He used to just sit and stare at things...completely serious, which was so unlike Mattie who smiled from birth. In fact, we all just sort of tolerated one another until he could walk and talk, and then suddenly this likable kid emerged. And oh, yeah, that picture of him cracking up? That's the first time he played on the computer...



Looking back now, I realize that he was so smart, he just wanted to take it all in. Who needed sleep, when you could be learning about the wallpaper? And if he was going to be awake, he wanted his favorite person-ME- to be with him. And his philosophy hasn't changed much in the past seven years.

What has changed is his sense of humor. He gets jokes. He finds humor everywhere. He says through a rolling laugh, "That's hilarious!" He gets me laughing with him.




He is a fantastic brother. He adores his older sister, and from the moment Charleigh appeared, he was interested and concerned about her. He would get her laughing too. Being jealous of her never occurred to him. His teachers adore him. So do the little girls.

He loves his Leggos and football and Indiana Jones and Transformers. He loves to play "spy" and "fighting." He plays hard without reservation...a perpetual ball of motion. He reads on the a high level and is endlessly inquisitive. If he wants something, he will endlessly work out ways to achieve it, to the point of driving his parents insane.






















And never, back when I brought home that grumpy little fella, did I even imagine how much I would adore this child. How much light and joy and wonder he would bring. Never did I imagine, back when he used to bite me, and throw temper tantrums and bang his head on the cement floor, that I would be able to talk to him and have such fun conversations. He has made me a better, more patient, more understanding person. I thank God for him.