Your 1st year has been a whirlwind of activities, events, and milestones. One of the highlights for me was when Grandma Karen and I traveled to Hawaii with you and your parents in November 2024. We stayed in a condo on the island of Maui where I celebrated my 75th birthday and your mom celebrated her 30th a couple of days later. We spent a few days walking along sandy beaches and enjoying the warm ocean breezes, then drove up to see an inactive volcano at Haleakala National Park. We were shocked at how cold and windy it was at 10,000 feet of elevation. We weren’t dressed for it, but we figured out a way to bundle you up against the cold.
Later, we flew over to the big island of Hawaii and had a lovely few days driving around the lava fields and beaches before flying home. You had a few “melt downs” on the long car rides but generally were very happy the whole time. Traveling with you as a 4-month-old was a pleasure!
In December, I noted to myself that “there is nothing like having a baby fall asleep on your chest. He has a bit of a cold. Oliver’s raspy, snoring breaths are five to my one. He has just started eating solid foods from a spoon. Karen fed him some mashed-up banana with some baby cereal & formula. He’s like a baby bird when he sees the spoon – mouth open, tongue out, lunging forward. But he’s not sure what to do when the food gets in his mouth. He pushes it out with his tongue.”
By the end of February 2025, at just over 7 months of age, you had 2 teeth, you were able to sit up without support and would be crawling soon. You were verbally babbling but not forming actual words yet.
Around this time, it occurred to me that you and I are living in historic times. The world is changing in ways I could have never imagined—and I’ve lived through plenty of changes. During my lifetime, humans have created computers and the internet, landed humans on the surface of the moon, and transplanted a human heart. I wonder about the world you will live in when you are old enough to read this. It will be very different from anything I can imagine.
These days, we seem to be stuck in a period when people with extreme opinions and without humor or compassion are entrenched in their ideas and ready to do battle with each other. Compromise and common sense seem to be in short supply. You, of course, are happily oblivious to all this.
You are a joyful child most of the time and I love it that you smile a lot and laugh, on occasion. I am sorry we didn’t think to make a note of your first laugh because I recently learned that the Navajo people of the American Southwest have a specific tradition around celebrating a baby’s first laugh. At around three months of age, they watch the baby closely for that first real giggle. The person who has the good fortune of eliciting that first laugh is then responsible for throwing a party,
The belief behind the tradition is that when a baby is born, he belongs to two worlds: the spirit world and the physical world. The first laugh is seen as a sign of the baby’s desire to leave the spirit world and permanently join his earthly family. I wish we could have celebrated your first expression of joy as a milestone in your life.
I was fortunate to be raised in a family that shared a lot of laughter. One of my earliest memories of my father was on a road trip to Gainesville, Florida to visit his brother, my Uncle Bobby. I was in the back seat of the car looking over his shoulder (no seat belts or car seats in those days) when a bug hit the windshield glass on the front of the car. My dad turned to me and said, “Do you know what that bug said when he hit the windshield?”
“No,” I replied.
Dad said, “If I had the guts, I’d do that again.”
I thought that was the funniest thing I had ever heard.
Life will throw you plenty of challenges, difficulties, and even tragedy. But I hope you will remain positive and find your way back to happiness. A famous person once said, “A day without laughter is a day wasted.”
I am happy and laugh a lot. My mission, as your grandpa, will be to help you laugh, giggle, or smile every day of your life. When you get a little older, I’ll answer important questions for you like: What is worse than finding a worm in your apple? And, How do you get a squirrel to like you?
In the meantime, keep smiling!!
J. D. Porter 
Leave a comment