A Bub in retrospect

By Published On: December 30th, 2011

Written by: Josh December 30 2011 Hard to believe how […]

Written by: Josh

Hard to believe how much can change in just over a year. Becoming a father boldly defies comparisons to anything else on Earth. Almost every day, my wife and I look at Bub and say out loud, ‘We made that!’ He is literally comprised of parts of the two of us, all rolled into one 20 lb. ball of cuteness. And that’s still crazy to think about. Hopefully he got the choice cuts and not the parental offal.

Bub is still very much under our parental umbrella. And I now see clearly why parents get the itch to have another. It’s not that he won’t be cute for much longer, it’s simply that he’ll need us less and less. People say ‘I couldn’t have done it without you,’ but never in reference to their own parents—the one case in which the shoe clearly fits. The older we get, the more of our parents we see in ourselves. Here’s to hoping that when that day comes, Bub likes what he sees.

As this is my last entry, I’d like to take just a minute to thank my parents for making my brother and I who we are—we couldn’t have done it without you. I also want to thank my beautiful wife, who pushes with just the right velocity, tolerates my juvenalia. Thank you, too, to Rachel and Tracy and every one at P&N magazine for the opportunity—I had a blast. Thank you to any and all readers who gave this experiment credence. Special shout-out to Junklekennedy—I know I suck at responding to comments, but I appreciated each and every one. And of course, the Bubster, who got me this job in the first place.

I’d also like to shamelessly plug myself and welcome you to come and follow my personal blog, Man Vs. Baby. It’s much sillier, far less true, many more swear words. I also tweet with the handle @manversusbaby from time to time, if you’re into that kind of thing.

I’d like to think I have some crazy knowledge that I’ve just been waiting to drop on you at the end, but I don’t. I can only share a quick story. I had a beer with a guy that I hadn’t seen in quite some time recently. He totally put me on the spot and asked me what the best part of parenting was. Hmm, tough one.

But I’m going to stick with my first answer. I said it was that everything about Bub is honest. He doesn’t like something, he will let you know—he’s not going to pretend. Many hapless vegetables have learned this the cold, hard linoleum way. But by the same token, then, you know that every laugh you get out of him, every surprise, every look of wonderment, every smile is 100 percent genuine. He doesn’t know how to fake it. And I surely won’t be the one to teach him.