Remembering Andrew

Bacchus recently has been sharing stories about "Baby R."

So much of it brings back memories of when Andrew was a baby or toddler.

Opinions of strangers:
We went to my cousin's wedding and I dressed Andrew in a lovely velvet sailor suit. It was cold and I went out and bought him a warm pair of white tights to keep his legs warm. He looked adorable. Hubby was changing him and later reported that a woman in the nursery expressed shock at the tights. "He's wearing tights! But he's a boy!" I told him he should have told her that if he grew up to be gay at least we would know why.

Hubby said he could barely go out with Andrew when he was small without older women remarking on how wonderful he was, or expressing concern for where the baby's mother was, or offering to hold the baby while he wrote a check...

Shoes:
When Andrew was closer to two he loved, every afternoon, to ride his little wheeled toy. He would push hard with both legs until he was going fast. Then he would drag his toes to slow himself down and stop. He wore out two pair of shoes in a month. I took him to a fancy shoe store, where they guaranteed their shoes. I explained the issue and the man brought out a pair of old fashioned-looking red sneakers. They had rubber toes that were think and came back half-way up the top of the shoe. He said that these were one of the only guaranteed shoes that they never had to replace -- and they had great brake pads.

Climbing:
Yeah...he climbed everything, all the time. I have photos of him in the dryer. We bolted book cases to the wall.

Missing his father:
His dad was gone for a while before he could put sentences together. Still I would talk to his father on the phone and would call him over so he could "talk " to Daddy, which really meant listening and looking at the phone receiver with curiousity. One day he was having a bad day and walked over to the phone pointed and said, "Dada!" Fortunately I was able to get Hubby on the phone. He said hello to Andrew. Andrew listened for about 1o seconds and walked off.

First words:
Andrews first words were: Mama, Dada, and Baba. "Baba" meant bagel.