Monster

This is my monster.

He earned this endearing nickname during the very tumultuous newborn months where he basically hated sleeping, eating, playing and being put down.

They were much more tumultuous than this picture indicates.

We had some shining moments during that first year.

like this one

Once he reached his first birthday he had all but shed those monster-ish characteristics (on most days) but the nickname stuck.

play on playa

Somewhere along the way he turned into this sweet, beautiful, tender-hearted little boy.  He has an intuition about people and seems to know when someone needs some extra love.  And then he gives it freely.

He still has a little monster in him, with a devilish grin and a twinkle in his eye when he's being naughty.  When he was younger he used to giggle right before he was about to get into something off limits.  It came in handy as I could always tell when he was causing trouble.  The boy loves to be out and about and gets his shoes on the second he finishes breakfast, ready for a new adventure.

He is his daddy's boy.  So similar to him in both looks and personality that sometimes I question if he carries any of my genes at all.  

Shortly after the monster's first birthday we discovered that he had a severe hearing loss for which he now wears hearing aids.  It explained a lot about the difficulties of his first year of life.  Since then my little monster has fought and worked and thrived.  The things I worried about and lost sleep over when he was diagnosed have proved to be minor hurdles.  There are still things to worry about: being the kid with hearing aids on his first day of kindergarten, the first pool party he will have to navigate without the use of his aids, wondering if his first dose of rejection has to do with the things that help him hear.  But there is time for that.  In the meantime I celebrate how far he's come.