Things I'd Forgotten

Sam will only be three in October, but I've been astounded by how much I'd forgotten about a newborn in those few years.

Like how good their heads smell, especially after a bath. Joy laughs at me because I'll smell Noah's head for hours after bathing him. Bono was onto something.

Like how they take a few short, quick intakes of breath before letting out a long sigh when they are sleeping.

Like how their voice and bottom lip quavers when they cry particularly hard.

Like how they smile when they sleep and occasionally laugh.

Like how their skin looks like a Sharpei with rolls upon rolls of skin hiding all sorts of things in their grasp.

Like how people look askance at a dad out with small children. I took Noah and Sam to Walmart the other day so Joy could have a few moments by herself. Knowing getting into the store would require a one-man caravan, I parked next to the cart return so I could grab a cart easily. When I got out of the car I laughed because I not only parked next to the cart return, but next to two dirty diapers. I quickly forgot them in trying to get sleeping Noah into the Baby Bjorn and trying to lift Sam into the cart while holding Joy's shopping list and the grocery circular for price matching and avoiding the gaggle of ladies who parked next to me and were looking alarmed at what I was attempting. I had forgotten those looks of "are you really capable of taking care of small children" I used to get from women when out alone with Sam, but put it from my mind until I arrived home 30 minutes later. As I went to the back of the car to retrieve my groceries, I noticed that one of the dirty diapers had found its way into the crack between the spare tire and the back window of my car. That's right, as the ladies returned their cart, they saw the diapers and assumed that I, a single dad obviously barely hanging on in his first outing with two boys, had casually tossed both my sons' diapers on the ground after changing them. And then decided that since they were picking them up, instead of putting them in the trash can close by, they would wedge them on my car hard enough to survive the ride home.

*sigh*

Some things I'm going to try not to forget as Noah grows. Others I probably will.