Dear Spike:
It’s been four months since the day you arrived in our lives — and just over a year since the day that I came home from work and your mother told me that there would be “three for dinner.”
My how our lives have changed.
Your mother grew and grew and grew. She gave birth to you. And then she shrunk and shrunk and shrunk. She’s around here somewhere, right now, I’m just not sure where.
I’ve grown too. Maybe a bit around the belly (I was eating for two, too) but mostly around the heart. I never knew it could feel so big, beating inside my chest, until I met you.
And my, my how you have grown. At the time we learned you were coming, you were just about the size of an apple seed. A few weeks later, we got a picture of you from the doctor — you looked like a speckled jelly bean (and when you finally arrived, at 7:28 a.m. on May 27, 2007, you really weren’t much bigger than that — just four-and-a-half pounds.)
Tomorrow we’ll go to see Dr. Schriewer to see how much you weigh. I say 10 pounds. Your mom says 11. Either way, you’re still a tiny kid. Tonight we went to dinner and I ran into a coworker who has a little girl who is a few weeks younger than you. Baby Alice was eating when you two were introduced, thank God, otherwise I’m afraid she might have had you for a snack.
Still, you’re strong and — we think — pretty darn smart. Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t comment, rather astonishedly it often seems, on how “alert” you are. (I’ve gone ahead and volunteered you for the 2 a.m. shift of the neighborhood watch.)
Your mother and I often comment on how difficult it is to remember what our lives felt like before you came. And maybe that’s simply because we don’t really want to.
You’re the best thing that ever happened to us. You’ve grown with us and made us grow with you. And my, my, my how it’s better.
Love,
dad
3 comments:
Happy four month birthday to Spike. You think it's hard to imagine life without her now? Try almost six years later.
Happy 4 months Spike - you are so lucky to have such wonderful parents!
My small Chihuahua boy, Benito, weighs about 4 pounds (up from the emaciated 2 1/2 he was when I rescued him). My boyfriend, now six feet tall and 224 lbs. of hulking muscle, was premature and had blackened eyes and was blue when born, and also weighed 4 lbs. I sometimes hold Benito and imagine my boyfriend that small and fragile and clinging to life, and now look at him. Huge. It's amazing what just pure life force can do.
Happy 4 months (OK, a little late!), Spike. You're a May baby, like me!
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