My Baby's Back!

My empty nest is empty no longer! My baby, my #5 son who's a college freshman at a Catholic university far, far away, came home for his Christmas break yesterday. It took planes, buses, and automobiles to get him here, but he made it--and it's so good to have him home!

When I went to pick him up at the bus station, I didn't recognize him at first. From a distance, I saw this very tall young man, and I thought it must be him; but this person was wearing a winter jacket I'd never seen before and a gray wool "newsboy" cap--looking very stylish, I must say. And then I realized that this dashing young gentleman from a GQ ad was in fact my boy! It was the spiffy hat that threw me. I guess the hat thing is just in his genes. His father--who is not, and has never been, an actual cowboy--has been sporting a cowboy hat for a long time now, and I have in recent years taken a liking to wearing des chapeaux myself. (Excuse my French. I'm just trying to stay brushed up on it in case I ever make it back to the Cote d'Azur.) So it was fun to see this son--who's never been one to wear even so much as a baseball cap--sporting a style of hat I just love, because it reminds me of both the olden days and the Irish.

It's really good to have this boy of mine back. I mean look at him, standing there in the kitchen with his Happy Meal "Scar" figurine (Lion King, anyone?) in his hand, and his jammie shirt...and no pants.

For some reason, all of my boys had an aversion to pants when they were little. They'd go around like this, even in the wintertime (inside the house only, of course). But look at those chubby little thighs! Isn't he just the cutest? Of course, this picture was taken seventeen years ago when he was just shy of two, and he doesn't look like this anymore. These days, he's a lot taller, his hair's a lot shorter, and he always has pants on. But when I look at him now, all 6 feet 2 inches of him, I still see the ghost of this adorable toddler.

And right now, I'm just so happy--because my baby's back!