Like It Was Lasterday

(Nathan up to something; his brothers oblivious)

Nathan is 8. How can this be?

Nathan was a sweet baby who loved to be held. Many people don't believe this, but he never even cried until he was 4 months old and got his first ear infection! Before that, he made this noise that was a cross between a sniff and a cough when he wanted something. The first time we heard that noise coming from the bassinet, Charles and I looked at each other in confusion. We walked over to the bassinet and peered inside.

"What's he doing?" I asked.

Charles had an incredulous look on his face. He said, "Is that his... is he... crying?"

We thought we had hit the mother lode!

As a toddler, Nathan was such a character. He looked like an angel with his blond hair, green eyes, and long lashes; but he was always up to something. He waited a long time to start talking... until well after he was two... and suddenly started conversing with us in complete sentences! He had very few baby words: "Bubba" for Matthew; "lasterday" for anything that happened in the past but not yesterday; and a precious few others. At 3, he talked like a little adult with the exception of his high-pitched voice. Charles called him our little munchkin because of his voice.

When Nathan was 5, he asked me on New Year's Eve if he could pray to ask Jesus to save him. I was worried about him being too young, and told him he could wait until he was older if he didn't understand what he was doing. Really, I tried to talk him out of it. He sighed and asked, "Mommy, I want to do this. Why can't I ask Jesus to save me now?" I talked with him at length and came to realize he really did understand; so he prayed on December 31, 2005. I saw the Holy Spirit in him after that night. Don't get me wrong... the character and mischief is still there! But so is Jesus.

The days and months flew by; and before I knew it so had the years. I can't believe he is 8! The boy who clung to me for dear life when I tried to leave him at Pre-K now hops out of the car and bounds up the stairs to school without a backward glance. He can still be sweet, though. Even though he spoke very few baby words; one precious word still remains in his vocabulary: "renember" for remember. I cannot bring myself to correct him! The other night, Ephraim fell asleep in my lap. After Charles took Ephraim to bed, Nathan said to me, "Mommy, you can sit with me in the big chair if you want to." This may not sound like much of an invitation, but it is huge for an 8-year-old boy! He still crawls into bed with me in the mornings just before I wake up. These precious moments will disappear so gradually that I won't notice exactly when they go, but I will wake up one day and realize they are gone.