Mini Me
It's true that Tom has less pictures of him with E than I do. Partly because I've been paying attention to it and have been asking for people to take our picture, and partly because Tom sucks at selfies. I'll spare him the embarrassment of sharing some of those...
But there are some, and they're super sweet. Everyone always talks about how much E looks like Tom, and yes, he absolutely does. WE KNOW. It's great, and it's cute, but it's also probably not the thing to point out to a new mom, over and over. She spent nine months giving up her body to grow this tiny human, maybe point out that he looks like her a bit too? Lie. Lie to that new mom. We all know it's only so new dads won't kill their cute little babies, right?
But yes, E is a perfect little mini Tom. And it's mostly pretty cute.
They're pretty cute together.
Tom took E out of the house by himself the other day. And rocked it. Sure I was a little nervous, but I knew it was important for him to do it on his own, so off they went. And he did great. Something that took me months to feel comfortable doing, he made look easy.
No, he doesn't always do things the same way I do, but that's okay. E doesn't really notice, and there really isn't a right way as much as I might sometimes think there is. I work really hard to not point out when he does something differently, because I know it doesn't really matter. What matters is that he's not only taking care of E, but that he wants to, and that he's awesome at it.
He may not be great at picking out matching outfits, but when I hand him a romper that he has no idea how to put on, he doesn't panic, and he figures it out. Just like he's figured out the car seat, and the diapers, and the meaning of the different cries.
No one else gets as excited as I do when E figures out how to burp on his own, or grabs at a toy, or almost, but not quite gets a finger in his mouth.
And the nights. Does he ever help in the nights. So much that I get almost embarrassed to talk about it because I know how lucky I am. Hold my breath, pinch myself, don't say it aloud because it might go away, lucky.
None of this should really be surprising to anyone who knows Tom, though. It's the people who keep asking if he's involved, if he's pulling his weight, if he's helping out - I have to think those are the ones who don't actually know anything about Tom or who he is as a person.
The rest of us, we just knew he'd be great.
So what I guess I'm trying to say is, happy anniversary Tom. I love you. And so does E.