I Love My Son

Yep! I love my son. I still call him “little boy” from time to time. He doesn’t mind. He calls me Pops, and I don’t mind at all. Justin is 27 now and living in Chicago. My baby boy is 27. There is never a conversation between us that doesn’t begin, end or include “I love you”.

I was there, mere inches away from Justin the moment of his birth and saw the whole glorious miracle of birth up close and personal. My parents came to the hospital for the birth. My father and I were talking in the hallway when an aid brought Justin by in his cart, headed for the nursery. She [the aid] stopped to let us have a look, and Justin barely 4 hours old lifted his head to have a look around. We both looked on in amazement, and my father looked at me and said “You’re going to have your hands full!”

Justin has always been a negotiator. I swear the first full sentence out of his mouth was “Let’s make a deal.” Justin was never unreasonable; he was never a whiner, and I don’t remember a tantrum of any kind out of him. He simply negotiated the terms by which he would cooperate. A small sacrifice [as a parent] for peace of mind.

Justin was quite young when his mother and I agreed to disagree and take up separate residence. His life from that point became mobile and transient and he adapted well. Justin was exposed to a wonderful cultural variety; European and Canadian grandparents and parents who both had a background in art. Everyone involved in Justin’s life contributed to a wide cultural experience and encouraged him to enjoy the experiences while learning to make his own choices. With all of this “liberal”, cultural influence Justin still became somewhat of an Alex Keaton [Google it if you don’t know].

Justin was always very interested in sports as well as academics, but mostly sports when he was young. I always thought because he was so into sports that if I could convince him that dusting, vacuuming, and washing dishes were sports I would be all set. Academically, Justin excelled simply because he was interested. I attended his middle school graduation for the awards ceremony. Justin received the award for outstanding accomplishments in math. I looked around and said out loud “That’s my son!” He also received awards for language, science, scholarship, citizenships…by the time he had accepted his seventh award I started [in a small way] being embarrassed for the other parents…but mostly proud of Justin.

Justin could ride a two wheeler without training wheels, and read and write at age 4!

My favorite “Justin” story is about how he loved to learn, have fun and understand language and his vocabulary.

He was six or seven and I took him with me to visit family in Canada. A young girl his age came over, introduced herself and asked him to come and play with her. I said “Justin, go ahead, make friends and play and come back for supper.” Off he went. At suppertime he came back and as we ate supper together I asked Justin how the day went with his new friend. He said “She’s really cool. We sat in her backyard having a burping contest all afternoon. She’s good because she has lateral intellect!” I asked “What? Lateral intellect? That sounds like she can only think lying down?” “No Dad” Justin exclaimed, “She’s allergic to milk and it makes her burp really good!”

“You mean ‘lactose intolerance’?”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s it!”

I Love My Son!