Pe'e Road: 1 Year Letter to Lawton

Dear Lawton,

Happy birthday! You turned one year old this weekend. Colin had been counting down the days to your birthday for over a month. He has been obsessed about your birthday and told just about everyone he knew that his brother was turning ONE on Sept 15. You have no idea yet on just how much Colin adores you. He constantly reminds all of us that he loves you more than anyone else in our family. That’s big stuff.

You also have him to thank for your first birthday cake which he helped me make. As you know, you were not disappointed by the experience. You devoured your cake in the same way that I drink coffee in the car – with abandon and without much concern for keeping a clean shirt. You finished your piece way ahead of anyone else and immediately started searching to see which one of us might share what we had left. We decided that we should probably limit your first significant intake of sugar, so we just sang “Happy Birthday” to you again to keep your mind off it. The distraction tactic no longer works with your brothers, but it’s a killer strategy for little munchins like you.

Here’s a picture of you and I that Quinn took this weekend. I got my hair cut and colored on Friday night and since I hadn’t pre-planned a night out on the town afterwards, I thought I should at least document the three hour hair appointment with a photo. Since I’m the official family photographer, there aren’t a lot of photos of me --- and there certainly aren’t many of me with blow dried hair. So I wanted you to know that although I tend to favor the wet pony tail look, I am capable of better.

When I was at the hair salon, I saw this mom with her two pre-teen daughters. I smiled as I watched them flip through hair magazines and discuss (in excruciating detail) about their hopes and dreams for their approaching hair makeover. I also started to do some mental math about what kind of financial outlay this poor mother was going to be making in just a few short hours. But beyond that, I had this moment as I watched them where I realized that I was so happy to be the Mom of three boys. Not because having a daughter didn’t look to be an amazing gift, but because I felt so filled up having sons. When I left, I did call your oldest brother however to tell him that it was VERY IMPORTANT that he tell me how good my hair looked as soon as I walked in the door.

As a boy, you do love to explore. Especially the few places that we’d prefer you not to. The bathroom is the main place that you seem not to be able to resist. I totally understand why unraveling the toilet paper and crawling into the shower is great fun, but I don’t understand the need to hang out behind the toilet or the fascination with the plunger. You love to venture into very small spaces that you can’t get out of, and seem to be particularly interested in ones that are both unsafe and unsanitary. You should know that I have both a fear of heights and snakes and so I beg you to keep your growing need for exploration at sea level and away from reptiles.

Of course, you also like power strips a lot and pulling on stray power cords. We have tried to keep these things away from you, but you’ve managed to find all the gaps in our very half hearted effort at child proofing. You are the third child after all and so we are prone to chinks in the armor. We do however usually catch you before you put the electrical cord in your mouth, although we have not always been able to prevent the iPod from crashing down to the floor. You have not sustained any injuries due to falling iPods – although it’s debatable on whether or not that is more or less dangerous than making it through one of our family iPod dance parties. The iPod dance parties usually involve lots of flailing arms, running in circles, and the occasional chest bump. They also interestingly always end up with Colin stripping naked.

As our third child, your Dad often thinks we sometimes treat you like our pet. For example, this question comes up a lot at home: “Has anyone fed Lawton yet?” We are committed to getting you three meals a day, but we are fairly flexible in how that gets accomplished. We are looking forward to when you will be able to do some more self hydration, but so far you appear to be challenged by the sippie cup. I know we shouldn’t press you on the issue, but it’s just that you aren’t really into the bottle either and we know that you need your liquids. You used to be so focused sucking down your bottle, but now you’ve redirected that focus into telling us that you would please prefer foods with a little more flavor. Pesto pasta is your current favorite and you now reject toast that does not at least offer a light spreading of butter.

Oh my goodness, do you love to talk. You weren’t a very loud infant, but as soon as you discovered your voice several months ago you’ve been a little chatterbox. You engage in these amazingly long “dialogues” with people and already use the art of inflection. You are much more talkative than either of your brothers were at this age. It’s fun to think about what you might be saying. I wonder if you’ve been asking questions about why you’re the only one that has to be strapped to your chair or why shoes are mandatory for all of us, but optional for you. Or why we keep so many old newspapers lying around. I can’t answer that one. You’ll have to ask your Dad.

You were baptized with your cousin Josh on September 9. It was so special to be able to stand before God, our family and friends, acknowledging the gift we have been given in you. The verse we picked out for you was Zephaniah 3:17 which says “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” Wow. Your Dad and I promise to the best parents we possibly can to you, but that’s a promise that we couldn’t even begin to touch.