“How many kids do you have?”

“Two… well, three if you count my husband.”

Come on ladies, you know you’ve made this joke or a similar one at some point in your marriage. And everyone chuckles with knowing and sympathetic glances. And though I’m probably also guilty of similar ribbing, I would like to take a moment to stand and say how much I enjoy – and more accurately – need this other child in my life.

My other child loves to laugh. He loves British humour, Saturday Night Live (back when it was truly good) and any other genuinely funny comedies. He loves to laugh at my jokes, and sometimes convinces me that I’m a downright professional comedienne. When he really gets laughing, it’s contagious.

My other child loves planes, and trains, and cars and generally anything that goes “VROOOM!” He runs to the window whenever he hears a plane flying over our house, and dreams all year of going to the Air Show. He once told me that Mylie “is going to love planes, whether she likes it or not!” He would play Microsoft’s “Flight Simulator” day and night, if left unchecked. He shudders with glee when he sees a train up close and personal. And he truly believes that one day he will have his very own “KITT“.

My other child loves to watch movies. He is (mildly) obsessed with the Back to the Future trilogy, and (due to being the third child after two older sisters) is the only grown man I know who can quote all of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. He can also perform Monty Python and the Holy Grail (see British Humour reference) from beginning to end. In fact, he can quote the lines to nearly any movie he loves after seeing it only a few times, though he often has difficulty recalling what I’ve said to him from minute to minute .

My other child loves maps. I’m pretty sure this is related in some way to his love of “modes of transportation.” Or it could just be that each map brings the possibility of a treasure hunt.

But most importantly, my other child loves life. He puts himself 100% into every single thing he does. He works incredibly hard, and he plays even harder. When he looks at the world, there’s a wonderment that not everyone is capable of having. Today he spent an hour with Mylie watching different versions of “Peter and the Wolf” on YouTube. He loves to play on the swings at the playground. He gets a kick out of playing the Primary songs on the guitar. He loves to wrestle and he loves to dance and he delights over buttercream frosting on birthday cakes.

And lest he be offended by my portrayal of him as immature, my other child is the most responsible, caring and good-natured husband and father that I know. He works incredibly hard to balance his responsibilities at work, home and church. He is always ready and willing to help me out at home, even after he’s been at the office all day. When I needed to run away to Seattle overnight, he left work early so that I could. He (almost) never complains about having to do the dishes, and he does them most every night. He steps in and helps with the kids when I need a break, or even when I don’t. And he prides himself on being able to be a “parent,” not just a “babysitter.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 10:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.