I consider myself to be...

...a responsible parent.

I mean, you won’t find me trying to ignore a smell that could only be coming from an expired pamper….or leaving you unattended in the car while I leisurely carouse the liquor store in search of a magical excape potion for the night. And you won't see an officer on an episode of Cops dipping his head into the squad car to ask me if there is a relative or family friend they can leave you with. Hell, I’ve even abstained from doing the-best-damn-feeling-thing-in-the-world while you’re asleep in the same room. So, I didn’t think twice about leaving you on the other side of the room to play with your toys while I turned my attention elsewhere. In fact, I just turned to look in the mirror. I can’t remember exactly what for, but I know I was staring at myself for a long time. I think I was comparing my reflection to the image of the man I thought I would look like as a child. (Yeah. It confused me, too.) Either way, I was absorbed in my own world, when I stepped backwards…and my heel felt something soft.

Oh man, I hope that’s a pillow.

I looked down to see that you were now on my side of the room, underfoot, and staring up at me with a rattled look that said, “Hey man, did you just step on me?!”

And I responded with a look that couldn’t be confused with saying anything but “Ohhhhhh, sh*ttttttttttt…”

Having the confirmation you needed, you proceeded to let me and everyone within a 100 mile radius know what a terrible parent I was. And you refused to stop until I picked you up and replaced my inattention with a miscellaneous googety-goo game. And when the last googety dried the remaining tear you spotted your abandoned toys on the other side of the room then proceeded to make the trek back over to the spot where I had originally set you down.

Anyway, this is how I learned that you had started crawl.

So, recently I really wasn’t surprised when I saw you take your first steps. Your eyes were all filled with the excitement that the first man to walk on the moon must have felt, while your movements would have won you the lead role in the movie “The Floor meets Baby Frankenstein”. But still, after step number four was complete and you fell back on your well-cushioned bottom I still wasn’t surprised.

This time what surprised me was a figure I saw in the mirror. It was me...sporting a jubilant smile. And it was the type of cheese-grin that I’ve only seen in pictures from my very early childhood. Pictures that were taken somewhere around Christmas time.