His First Trick...

Well, we're just over nine weeks old, and he's got his first trick down pat.

Really, he can't take all the credit... it's a team effort. Maybe you have already figured it out from the picture, but if not, I will try to explain this amazing feat of concentration and synchronization to you.

First, I stick out my tongue and smile and make a noise. I do it about three times. Then Jackman smiles and sticks out his tongue. This may sound easy, but I challenge you to try this with a stranger on the elevator, or a cop, or your boss, and see if you get the same results. I doubt it.

I know everyone thinks they have the smartest kid in the world, and when they do something it's more special than what other kids do. I'm not going to try to get you to believe Jackman is the smartest baby in the world. There are approximately 133 million babies born each year. I concede that it would be a stretch to say he was the very smartest baby born this year (even though he is most certainly in the top ten). Likewise, newborns account for 327 bajillion acts of cuteness a year. Jackman's trick probably isn't the cutest thing ever (even though it is the cutest thing ever done by a baby in the Americas).

Okay, I'll admit, now I get it why everyone's baby is so cute and so smart. I really try to be objective about all this, but when we figured out that little trick the other night I was amazed. I immediately started telling Lisa "he's brilliant, and only nine weeks old..." (as if she somehow forgot how old he is). Lisa brought me down a few notches when she told me it was perfectly normal. In my head, I started trying to figure out how normal was exceptional in his case. I thought it was just amazing.

I can't figure out why something like that is so meaningful to me. It's such a simple little thing. I'll be honest, when people have told me in the past about the "amazing" little things their youngsters have done, it didn't have any kind of impact on me.

I know it partly has to do with the fact that he's my young'n. That explains a lot. Maybe another part of it is that he seems to like me. It made me feel really good when he was smiling, and responding to me. But that doesn't fully explain why I feel like my boy is extra-ordinary.

I think it has everything to do with my hopes and expectations for him. What parent doesn't start out raising a little major league ball player, or beauty queen, or whatever. I know that in the back of my mind, I want him to accomplish more, and better things than I have. But I actually thought about that for several years before we ever got pregnant. I have even loftier goals than that for him.

I want Jackman to make God as happy like he made me when he copied what I did the other night. I know for a long time that will depend on me, copying what God does so the boy can see it, and do it also. But then I want him to realize Who I am copying, and choose to follow the Lord. That would truly make me more proud than watching him on TV one day.

He's off to a good start with the copying thing, and I have to be extra careful now that we have a little copycat on our hands. Stay tuned for the next amazing Jackman moment.