Top Ten Reasons Gavin Kicks A$$

We’ve been concerned about how Gavin would respond to Molly since her diagnosis in March. How will we explain everything to him? Obviously we were concerned when she was born. Will he resent her for getting too much attention? And we’ve been very conscious of him during the last several weeks while Molly has been in and out of hospitals, particularly the last two weeks while she has been here. I took him to a Giants game a couple weekends ago, just the two of us. Erin and I took him to the Please Touch Museum on Saturday. We try as often as possible to have him sleep at home in his own bed, but when he can’t he loves spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. All in all he has been incredible. He amazes me on a daily basis.

So I offer my son a tribute. Gavo, you might just be my hero and these are the top ten reasons you kick a$$:

10. We go to the Please Touch Museum and afterwards all you want to talk about is the taxi. Last year when we took you to see Santa in NYC you would have been satisfied if we’d gotten right back on the train in Penn Station and headed back home. Someday I will take you to London, like you’ve been asking, and when I do all you’ll want to talk about is the big, big plane that takes us there.

9. Your favorite part of going on trips, admittedly, is eating Pop-Tarts.

8. At your first live Giants game you fell asleep on my lap for a solid hour, which included the eventual game-winning drive and accompanying crowd noise. You never once asked to leave until five minutes remained in the fourth quarter, which was about the same time everyone else was leaving anyway. And now, over a week later, you’re still telling me how “Shockey got hammered” and dropped the ball in the end zone.

7. You like eating everything bagels with cream cheese. Or everything bagels with egg and cheese. And you’ve even gone so far as to ask for an everything bagel with egg and cream cheese. Oh yeah, and eat it when I made it for you.

6. You can identify Kurt Busch’s #2 car as “the beer car” because it looks just like the bottles in our fridge. You can also identify Junior’s car, but you call him Dale Frunham Junior.

5. Last night when we went to the grocery store you actually picked the menu, pushed the cart, filled the cart, and scanned the groceries. Too bad you couldn’t buy them. But you did give me a hug, and since I would pay for those hugs it seems you sort of did.

4. Your favorite songs over the last six months have been Bad Day, Hips Don’t Lie, and Sexy Back. You have no idea what they mean and you make up your own words anyway, but you can identify the songs and tell me they’re your favorite.

3. The other day when you were playing on the floor you noticed that your knee hurt because it had a rugburn. You said you couldn’t play with your cars and push them around on the floor because it hurt when you did. You asked me to kiss it to make it better and I did. You haven’t even mentioned the rugburn since.

2. When we were leaving the hospital one of the first nights and you didn’t understand why mommy had to stay you started to cry. I told you to try not to cry because it would make mommy sad. You actually stood yourself up, wiped off your tears and gave mommy a big hug goodbye. Then when we got around the corner, out of her sight, you started crying again

1. You’ve never once asked why Molly is in the hospital. You're always anxious to see her and give her a kiss. You don’t even know she is sick. You know the tube in her nose is so she can eat, but you’ve never asked why no other babies have them. None of that matters to you. You just love her because she is your baby sister and you’re her big brother.

Incidentally, this post may lead to a follow-up:"Top Ten Things Gavin Says That Make Me Laugh Out Loud." Oh and also, this list could have been a Top Fifty. He is definitely my hero.