First Born

It started with a homemade pizza.  Thick crust, lots of cheese, and every known meat item I could find.  Then, she felt a pain, the another, then, "I've gotta take a walk!"  Onset of labor, around 8 p.m.  Pizza got finished, don't recall ever taking a bite.  It was the last homemade pizza I've made, 28 years ago.

Twelve hours later, at 8:34 a.m., I became Daddy Bill!  Baby boy, Matthew Lamar Weems, 6lbs, 12 oz, and 20 1/4 pounds of pure joy.  Got the Baby Momma and cub home to the waiting rocking chair!  Baby Momma had herself a cry.  I was hoping it was one of those good kinda cries. It was!

Baby Momma had to have a C-section, so I got the first two weeks of Baby Daddy duty.  Learned real quick to put a diaper over the fire hose.  Never will forget the smell of those first dirty diapers, good God!  That diaper genie was the best gift ever!

Maw-in-law showed up to help.  First night home from work, she had five pots going on our four burner stove.  I thought "oh Lord, help me!"  Matthew did not like his bath at all.  He'd scream bloody murder til he was covered in his hoodie towel.  First words out of Maw-in-law's mouth were "you're scrubbing that baby's head too hard!" (cradle cap prevention).  Next night it was her turn.  Yep! My turn!  Hey!  "you're scrubbing that baby's head too hard!"  We both got a good laugh outta that!

Learning to ride a bicycle was easy.  Bike, Matthew and me, in the street.  One push, and off he went!  I thought, damn1 That was easy.  Then I hear, "Dad! How do I stop???!!!"  In the ditch he went.  Got back up and at it again!

I had the pleasure of learning about coaching with this one.  First soccer game, he would not go on the field.  We both stood out there together, life two oak trees with deep roots.  To get the feet moving for the next game, I offer him $5 for each goal he scored.  Four goals the very next game.  Four more over the next three.  Worth every penny!

Baseball became more challenging.  T-ball was the best ever!  Then coach pitch, Buddy Ball.  As the coach, you or one of the assistants get to pitch to your team.  The player gets up to five pitches to hit the ball, then you are out of strikes.  I gave up game day pitching real quick, off to the batting cage I went!  The father-son relationship struggle begins early.  While in the field of play, Matthew was not interested in defense on this day.  I finally looked at him and said "fine, head to the dugout!"  I look up, and four other players followed him right in! 

We have now moved up to a bigger bike.  "Dad.  Build me a ramp for jumping."  I ask how high.  You sure?  Ok, ramp built.  First run, he got plenty of speed.  Matthew hits the ramp, and up in the air he went!  Problem was landing.  Bam!  Both tires hit the pavement, for a perfect landing.  Matthew's landing, not so perfect.  Upon landing, the seat went right through his private area, and over int the grass he went!  Somebody forgot to use his knees as shock absorbers!  That boy was singing soprano for weeks!

Middle school had its challenges.  Matthew had a reading assignment, but couldn't seem to find the time to make it to the library to get a book.  He was real good at blaming the teacher.  My patience had run thin.  I called a dear friend of mine that was the librarian, to see if she could assist Matthew in picking out a book for this assignment.  Matthew gets home that afternoon, "Dad, I'm gonna kill you!"  He got pulled out of home room class by the librarian, and had his book!  No more problems with trips to the library after that!

High School Band.  Oh what fun!  I volunteered to be treasurer and also take care of concessions.  After the first game, I told Matthew how good they sounded! (What do I know???)  Matthew said "It sucked!"  I ask why?  Turns out Matthew didn't get to play his saxophone the first two games.  He would play what he wanted to play, so the Band Director had the drum Major pull his reed.  Result:  no sound!  I called in a favor with the assistant band director, with assurances that all his future notes would be sweet!

Matthew made it through high school, then two years of "see you at Hinds" then he did a three year tour of USM.  Graduation day was a wonderful thing!  We always told him to chase his dream, but he had to have a college degree.  After a sputter, He and his band mates made it to Nashville, with dream in hand!

Nashville lasted a year.  Dream has been chased, but he's got his college degree.  Rut row, guess who just moved back home???  He can now say, "hey Hinds!  I'm back!"  He is now focused in a different direction, and has a wonderful girlfriend to keep him on track.

Today is Matthew's 28th birthday, and my 28th year of being a Dad.  Thanks for the ride son!  The memories we've created are forever etched in my brain.  There are more to come because this ride is no where near over!

Love,

DAD

First date was the high school dance.  The spousal unit and I got to chauffer the lovely couple.  I was very careful with this cargo, driving below the speed limit, with the emergency flashers on!  Needless to say, that was my last job as his chauffer!