Birthday cake and ice cream

I find it very odd how much we as parents desire our children to move on to the next developmental stage when they are young. We watch them with our breath held as they pull themselves up to their knees to crawl for the first time, we cheer for them as they learn to pull themselves up to stand with the aid of the sofa. Then in what seams to be the next moment they are walking on their own, forming sentences with phrases that make us ask “where did he pick that up from, I never say that, do you?” We just can’t seam to wait until the next significant development in our children’s lives. Then one day the parents find themselves standing in their home frozen in disbelief looking around at their lives with that exhausted confused expression that says “where did I lose control!” You wonder why you had ever wished they could walk, because you now spend all your waking hours chasing them in order to keep them out of things that they are determined to get. Like cat food on the kitchen floor or wood chips on the fireplace, things you have never personally felt the desire to sample as a dietary option but they seam drawn like Gollum to the one ring. You begin to wonder why you have wished so fervently for them to be able to speak because now that they can you are not able find that button that makes them stop, and their batteries unlike all the fire truck toys never seam to fade into peaceful quiet where you can fain ignorance in the process of replacement.
I have two such creatures in my home the eldest is three years and for months and at every stage of his development thus far I have sworn that “this is the funniest age”; when he said his first word, crawled, walked without assistance…. Each of these represented a milestone that I was certain at the time could never be eclipsed on my meter of joy. However each time he made a leap forward in his development my elation boiled to a level not reached before making my heart ever happier. Now that we have a second son my seven month old has completely changed my view of how please any one person can be it’s as if every time my pot of boiling love is removed from the stove of parental pride my sons conspire to fire up the cauldron and I am boiling over again. Not just for the fact that I am overjoyed with my young son’s achievements but am vividly reminded of the joy I originally felt with my first born reaching this same goal. And like birthday cake and ice cream these events complement each other perfectly without the slightest detraction.
I have said this many times to younger men I know. Get married to the right woman soon, it will be the best thing that ever happens to you also the hardest but it will be worth it. Then make her some boys they are the best.