My kid is better than yours

Don't try to argue. It's official.

Everybody told me before he was born that all parents, new parents especially, think their kid is the brightest, smartest, cutest, most amazing thing ever to grace the planet. I thought, how incredibly naive when the world has already produced such genius as Galileo and Mozart and Einstein. Sure, your kid is great, but you have no idea what he'll grow up to be.

I'm not saying I know Riley's future but I can tell you if he doesn't go into medicine or engineering or something equally amazing, it will be a waste of his fantasitcal brain.

And now I sound like one of those parents.

But honestly I'm not. I've been very down to earth about the whole thing. We noticed he was pretty special very early on, but we thought we were imagining it just like they said we would. Then other people started telling us his hand-eye coordination was amazing and that he shouldn't be able to do this or that yet.

He doesn't say many words, but I know for a fact he understands just about every word I say. I know this, because he'll bring me what I'm talking about, or answer my questions. (Who are we going to see, Riley? Dada!) So yes, I've been very cautious at labeling him a genius up until now. Even now I think I'm going to sound ridiculous but it's just my blog. I could say whatever I wanted to, honestly. But I really do think he's got something. Something amazing.

I get a presence of wisdom from him sometimes that simply floors me. I know he's an infant, but if I believed in past lives I'd probably say he's an old soul. Once when he was much younger, someone said to me "He smiles like he knows something, but he's not telling."

Sure, he still poops his pants. He runs into things and gets extremely frustrated when he can't do something. He throws random fits, takes naps, refuses food, everything a normal 18 month old would do. But he's still special. You just have to meet him to know that.

I often consider the way he came into the world. A series of seemingly random events that all lead up to this perfectly amazing, healthy child. It almost wasn't such a happy ending.

They diagnosed me with diabetes fairly late in my pregnancy. Riley was already quite large. I was so worried because this could mean he'd come out over weight or with diabetes or heart disease. I had to get sonograms every week to make sure he wasn't getting lethargic or worse. They monitored his heart very closesly and it was very important that he did 5 specific moves every week, or else I'd have to go to the hospital for a more intense stress test. But the little guy pulled through every week for over a month. I never had to get the stress test. Still, I worried.

I was so intesely concerned infact, that my mom had to keep calming me down. I'd have to say it's the worse off I'd ever been. Nothing anybody could say made me feel any better.

One day I was thinking, Why God? Why did this happen? What did I do? What if, what if, what if. And I suddenly felt this peace over me and I just knew that he was going to be ok. Not just ok, great. And I knew, somehow, that it wasn't just for the pregnancy or birth. I felt like God was saying he had a plan for him, and that I didn't need to worry about his future at all.

And I haven't, ever since.

I think I described before what happened before his birth, but I'll say it again because this is a Riley story, and I don't think all these facts have been put down in one place before. For some reason, he hadn't dropped down into the birth canal even two weeks after my due date. The doctors didn't know why, but they knew he needed to come out. They gave me the option of a c-section and having labor induced. I was scared to death of both options, but the c-section especially. The doctors said that since they had no idea why he hadn't come yet, they couldn't offer any advice as to what I should do. They left it up to us.

The doctor left us alone to talk about it and I remember saying to Josh, half crying, that I knew I needed the c-section. Even though it was an option I had refused to educate myself about during the pregnancy, because it was just too scary. We told the doctor, had the operation and it turned out that Riley's cord had been wrapped around his neck. Twice.

I'm not sure if you know what this kind of condition can do to a newborn if forced down the birthcanal with limited oxygen, but the options are pretty much one form of retardation or another.

So you see, it's not just me who thought Riley's intelligence would be something of importance in his life.

There's something about that guy.