First Time For Me

Prior to last night, the youngest child I had ever held was Titus Paul Walker. I believe Titus was about 3 months of age when I held him for the first time over two years ago. Last night, I got the privilege of holding Jaxon Xavier Larry for the first time.

For those of you who don't know me very well, let me describe myself. I am 6'5" tall and weigh 250 pounds. Twelve years ago when I graduated high school I weighed 175 pounds. I would not say that I was fat by any stretch of the imagination, but lets just say I have grown into my frame. Although I don't believe him, one of my players just told me this morning that I look like a miniature Mario Williams. Mario Williams was the first player taken in the NFL draft two years ago by the Houston Texans. He sat beside him at the Rockets game the other night and said we looked similar to each other. Well, let me get back on track. Last night, I held my slightly under two pound son for the first time. When I first took him from the nurse, I had no clue how to hold him. I must have looked like an idiot with both hands outstretched and my palms up. Crichelle helped me rest Jaxon on my arm so that I did not look like a fool. It was pretty neat.

I held Jaxon for a while and then I realized that my 1 pound 14 ounce baby boy can get quite heavy after 5 minutes. I decided to take my mind off of how heavy he was becoming by reading to him. I asked Crichelle to bring me a book and she came back with "The Little Engine That Could." I thought to myself, what a great story for my little boy. I figured this would be great because I remembered the story vividly from my younger years. The only problem is that the only part of the story I truly remembered was, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can". I had no clue there were other trains that came along and didn't help because they were too prestigious, tired, or old. Those trains just went back to the roundhouse. How dare they. It's a good thing that you don't remember every little detail when you are a child or I might have harbored a little resentment towards passenger or freight trains.

After finishing the epic novel, I sang a few songs to Jaxon. Classics like, "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands", and "Jesus Loves the Little Children." He likes those a lot. His brother is a big fan of "Go Cubs Go". I'm sorry, I had to throw a shout out to my Chicago Cubs. One hour later, the nurse came by and placed Jaxon back in his isolete. I did not expect to hold him for an hour, but it was perfectly fine with me. He did a great job. He held his temperature and only whimpered once or twice. Needless to say, daddy was proud of him.