I’d like to share some things that I got Addair over the weekend while my Dad and I did some shopping.  I’ve started him a little toy box.

Of course we have the regular toys, piles of them.  But since we are soon to be living in an Airstream travel trailer we are stream-lining down to the essentials.  This compass is new, as is the knife.  As old as he, may they hold him straight and cut true.  The rock is a piece of amber I bought from a little girl on the streets of Semijovel in Chiapas.  The racecar was found in our yard, a token of the dirt, from before our home was a vessel gleaming in the Walmart parking lot while Daddy tries to busk up some lunch money.

And although he is very excited, he seems to wonder “What else ya got?”

Can you believe the pot belly on this kid?  He looks like Pappaw.

Yup, that’s cute.

This is my mom.  She brought me into this world, and when I saw Ashley do that for Addair it was an experience that I’d be sitting here for a while to try and explain.  My appreciation for my mother has soared.  Actually I was so overcome in those moments afterward that I looked around at each human in the room and was grateful for their mothers too, wherever they might be.

I was just reminded today about a little side story.  One time about a year ago we were running a little low on cash.  It was a fluke occurrence, but anyways, I’d gotten some work on a construction site and the guy was still really low on hands after my first day.  I told him I knew someone dependable, really good with measurements and making cuts, plus they could ride with me tomorrow.  So I brought Ashley the next day.

The entire job was being run by barely skilled college guys who were off for the summer and I knew that Ashley likely had more experience than all of them.   She and I were hanging wood paneling for the restrooms when the boss man brought me to the side and asked, “How’s she doing?  I mean, like, …as good as….” and he looked for his wording, “….anybody else?”

Better, I thought.  But I said yes, disappointed that he had committed his most blunderous error (he had immediately commented on her fashionable red workboots.  They were real boots, only red).  Most importantly, if you need to talk to someone working for YOU, then talk to THEM, and not their husband.

She kind of lost her cool after that.  I took the nail gun from her.  At the end of the day I told him he’d better go ahead and pay us.

Today Ashley walked to the site in the neighborhood where my crew was working and got my truck keys.  She had the baby, and I was remembering as she left about the story I just told you.  She had on a dress, some fancy boots and she looked foreign amidst the assortment of things one is used to seeing on a construction site.  It’s not that things there are dirty, but they are perpetually in an unfinished state.

Here she was all pretty and ready to go.  And I’ll tell you one thing.  As big and bad as any man can feel as he hammers and cuts and measures with precision, a woman with a baby on her hip is badder than them all.  I’ve seen it.  I tip my hat, and I will never forget it.  She can wear the boots she likes, and she can co-captain my Airstream any day.

And to anyone reading this who has ever been born, you should remember to thank as many mothers as you can.  Thanks mom.

weeks and weeks ago (like 3)