My first child had it all. Beautiful announcements went out when he was born. Every little milestone is recorded neatly in his baby book. Professional pictures were taken at all of the appropriate ages and times. He had cute, matching outfits for every occasion. We bought all the right furniture, filled with the right amount of drawers and cabinets to perfectly organize all of his belongings and keep our house looking normal most of the time. Like good first time parents, we researched everything we did for Landon. We read all of the books, put in hours of grunt work, and did four and a half years of homework so that we'd know what kind of parents we were just in time for the entrance of our little wild man, Hurricane Baylor! Nothing about Baylor's birth (or life thus far) has been planned, recorded or structured. After spending nine months in an Obstetrician's office, having multiple ultrasounds and every medical test known to man....I found myself in labor, turning my car to drive to a midwife's birthing center where all 6 lbs. 14 oz. of Andrew Baylor Pfaffl came into the world. It was about as unplanned as it could get!
I was almost immobile after delivering him, thanks to my trusty broken tailbone and I got sick with a slew of autoimmune problems almost as soon as I brought him home. The first months were a blur as I was in survival mode. God knew what He was doing, giving a control freak like myself a baby like Baylor, though! This is and was always the most laid back, easy going baby imaginable! He slept peacefully through the night almost from the get-go. He started smiling so early in life that I can't ever remember him not doing it! At only three months old, he had to spend two weeks in the hospital with me and when people asked me how in the world I got through being sick and having a baby at the same time, I always say, "I couldn't have made it WITHOUT him!" Yes, God sure knew what He was doing when he made me wait until I had a Kindergartner before giving me my sweet Bay! What a good lesson in TRUST!
Baylor is now a 23 & 1/2 pound toddler and we can't imagine life without him. He is wild and energetic, refusing to stop moving from the minute he wakes up in the morning until he crashes in an exhausted meltdown at nap time. I clean, he destroys. I organize, he dishevels. Ever the little Evel Knievel, Baylor climbs too high, runs too fast & plays too rough. He is loud an HILARIOUS & loves attention. He will do pretty much anything for a laugh. There is usually a smile on his face and a gleam of mischief in his eye, but you never know what you might get with this kid. He certainly has a mind of his own! He is independent and MUST do everything by himself. He has just learned to toss his head back with dramatic flare an toss himself to the floor with injustice when he's upset. He pulls the child proof outlet covers out of the walls and puts them into his mouth to chew on them while finding objects to stick into the newly-opened holes. He takes the cushioned edges off of the brick fireplace at my dad's house and then climbs on it and attempts to jump off head first. He's CRAZY about Landon and stops at nothing to imitate and impress him. He keeps me moving, which is exactly what I need at this particular point in my life, and I adore every (red!) hair on his sweet little head!
His life so far has been a whirlwind of surprises and adventure--none of it planned or organized. As a matter of fact, any semblance of organization went out the window as soon as Baylor showed up. Before having him, I wondered how I would ever love a second baby. Now that he's here, I can't say no to a 3rd sometime in the future. He has changed me for the better. I want to hug him and kiss his squishy cheeks all day (And I might be tempted to try if he hadn't recently learned to crisscross his arms and "go limp" so that no one can pick him up when he's on a mission.) I can't wait to see what life has in store for the Pfaffl House in the future! I've given up trying to plan and predict at this point!
