One of the more important life lessons learned as part of the ‘Lara and Randall Voyage into Parenthood’ is the generosity and basic human decency of people. This is sacrilege. Twitter may delete my account for saying such things and the social media trolls may fill my inbox with deranged messages. It’s safe to say that our lives have been punctuated embracing the need to be vulgar. To hate of hate’s sake. To hate more openly and to being rewarded for this hate. We divided on a whole host of issues – divided on the basis of race, political party, sex, climate sexual orientation, immigration abortion, police brutality, vaccinations – the list is virtually endless.
Except when it comes to Jaxon.
Jaxon has received universal praise. This is partly due to the fact that he is a master manipulator. Lara hates when I say that but I mean is as a complement. Technically, nearly all babies have an inherent ability to get most adults to do just about anything for them. Jaxon seems to poop this out. People love him. Each person that has experienced Jaxon has come away with a unanimous love for him. “He is sooo cute, he’s so calm, Oh look at that smile!” Lara and I cannot walk down the street without other parents, grocery store clerks, dogs, birds, lawyers, doctors, democrats, republicans, gawking. I’ll admit, when he turns on the charm, which he loves to do, it’s a sight to behold. The important thing is that that world is untied.
In any case, today’s post is about giving thanks to the humanity of the International Friends of Jaxon. Did other things happen this week? Sure. Jax met with a GI specialist. Did he keep us up most nights, indeed. Today, we aren’t talking about those things as I will file that talk for some other time. I cannot completely express how thankful we are for the displays of humanity and encouragement tossed our way – rather Jaxon’s way. Naturally, as an only child, I’m a little jealous of my son in that he has effortlessly conned us all. Not only has he unified the world in ten or so weeks of existence to adore him but that he does so with a wink and a nod that only a former only child can appreciate. This love of Jaxon has manifested in the following acts.
The other week I hinted at the fantastic donation of time that Kim Daulton provided to Lara and I. She has walked Jaxon and at the time of the post, has watch him overnight at least three times. Each time, Jaxon was a picture of television baby perfection. He barely pooped or cried. Jaxon’s acid reflux or whatever ailment that troubles him was on hiatus. While I feel that this sort of makes Lara and I out to look like dopes – telling you readers about how Jaxon barks orders to she and I at all hours of the night, it does make handing him over to great friends and family an easy experience. Lara and I were able to figuratively get drunk on hours of extra of vintage sleep – the old-timey sleep that we remember from yonder year – like January. This significant act of kindness that helps us immensely. Thank yo Kim!
It’s time to admit that Jaxon is developing a reputation of being that “go to baby”. By that I mean Jaxon is the baby that everyone wants to hang out with – to watch him to get easy “I watched a baby” credibility. Lara and I hope to collect this “I watched” credit from most of you at some point. Does it mater that Jaxon yells baby obscenities at his parents mere moments after people leave? Not at all. Again, this is vital work and Lara and I appreciate those of you able to do this. You can rest easy knowing that you will go down in the annals of those few who watched Jaxon, giving him a bottle or watching him sleep. Joke aside, this is important work. Not only does it help maintain the sanity of Lara and Randall but it is also certification of life experience. This is especially true for men. For example, Jaylan Mullins was my “cred baby”. That one time I watched him alone for like 4 hours in 1998 served me for 22 years. I almost certainly put it on a resume. Did I do anything extraordinary? Absolutely not. I returned him unscathed and that was enough.
Again, thank you all for your thoughts and actions. May Jaxon smile up at you.