Brandon Gilbert

When you bring a child home from the hospital, one of the first things other parents tell you is to cherish all the moments, because “they grow up so fast.” Well, until recently, those were just words to me. But over the last few weeks, they are becoming painfully more and more true. Last Thursday, Ryne turned 3 months old. To celebrate, I thought I would put a comparison pic together to see how much he’s grown. This is what I got:

The picture on the left is from the day we brought him home from the hospital. The picture on the right is from this past Sunday before we left for church. I’m not going to even try to lie about it. It’s hard for me to look at this picture without getting a little emotional. It was even hard for me to finish editing it together in photoshop.

I mean, if he was a full grown person, the transformation would be huge. We’re talking Spudd Webb to Shaquille O’Neal, Dr. David Banner to Incredible Hulk, David to Goliath. By comparison, he’s so huge. I know it’s supposed to be this way, but if in three months there’s this much difference, what do I do in eighteen years? It’s hard to fathom my baby boy as an eighteen year old, but I’m sure my parents thought the same thing twenty-eight years ago. It’s definitely a life lesson on how fast time truly does fly by.

On the flip side, with all this new growth, comes fantastic new “tricks” that his body lacked the coordination to do before. So in honor of his three months on this Earth, here are my favorite new things Ryne can do.

1. When I pick him up, he puts his arms around my neck.
2. While he doesn’t quite reach yet, he will thrust his body towards someone who he wants to go to.
3. He’s gained quite a bit of coordination in his arms and hands and can now grab for things.
4. Also with his new found coordination of arms, he can give me and Jamie fist bumps. As soon as he learns what an open palm is, we’ll try to graduate to high-fives.
5. He stays awake longer during the day and concentrates on things more. This resulted in great Father-Son time this past weekend when he sat beside me and watched the whole first half of the Auburn-Arkansas game with me, took a nap, and then the whole second half of Alabama-Ole Miss (which is the one we really cared about anyway).
6. I know I am tempting fate here, but he’s also sleeping longer at night. 6-7 hours’ worth. This is a blessing, and Lord, I pray it continues to be a blessing.

I know it’s his job to grow up, and I know it’s my job to make sure he does it as best I can. But it’s going by way too fast.

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