Three years ago...

About a week and a half ago, Kiddo turned 3.

My little baby is 3 years old.

Of course, that night after Kiddo went to bed Sweetie and I had to pull out the old videotape of the days surrounding his birth. We laughed at the pile of luggage I lugged to the hospital room (hmmmm...is that why it's called "luggage", because you "lug" it everywhere?), winced as we watched Sweetie's pain during early labor, laughed again at the sudden change in her demeanor AFTER the epidural, cried as he was born, and went through the whole range of crazy emotions we felt in the following 3 or 4 days, emotions intensified by an INCREDIBLE lack of sleep.

On the one hand, it felt like yesterday.

On the other hand, it seemed like a lifetime ago.

I remember taking him home from the hospital. As we got into the car, Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" was playing on the radio--we were videotaping ourselves driving away, and with the music and the freshly fallen snow outside, it honestly sounded like a movie soundtrack. One of these days, if I have a chance to convert that video to digital, I'll have to post it because it's entirely too funny. I remember driving home white-knuckled, more nervous than I've ever been behind a wheel since I was a teenager learning the ropes in an empty parking lot, knowing that I had this brand new life that I was responsible for in the back seat.

I remember walking into the house, setting Kiddo down in his carrier, looking at Sweetie helplessly and both of us saying to each other, "okay, what do we do now?"

I remember the first diaper change at home. Now, you need to realize that I've changed many a diaper in my day, even before Kiddo was born. I did a lot of babysitting growing up, and worked for a time at a child care center. But I made a classic mistake for this first "at-home" changing. He had pooped a little bit, and I had him on the couch, butt facing outward, as I knelt with my face at butt level, getting ready to wipe him off. Well, you can guess what happened next. That's right, he wasn't quite done pooping yet. Ever had a faceful of baby diarrhea? No? I swear, it was something right out some B-grade new parent comedy movie, except if it had happened in a movie I would have said "that's too unrealistic, that NEVER would happen in real life!"

I remember having the entire Nick at Nite lineup from midnight to 6 AM memorized.

"Memories...light the corners of my mind...wispy watercolor memories...of the way we were..."

Happy belated birthday, Kiddo.

LH