Tin Man Flynn: Happy Birthday Holden!

It’s hard to believe how fast a year goes. As a young child, we always looked forward to the joy that came with our own birthday. So much so, that the distance between the two dates often felt like a year on Jupiter rather than on the good ol’ home planet. As parents, we've quickly transitioned to looking forward Holden's milestones in the same manner. Today was one that seemed to come so quickly though.

Exactly one year ago, at 7:46 in the morning Nicole and I were blessed with the greatest thing that has ever happened to us. Born at what we’ve described several times as the “Flynn-friendly” size of 4 lbs 13 oz, Holden Joseph Flynn came packaged with a lot of unanswered questions, and a lot of promise.

We didn’t know it at the time, but most those questions of our child’s health would quickly turn into questions like how much coffee one’s adult frame could consume, when do they start to feed themselves, are these chunks of food we're handing out kid too big, and how can we change a diaper in the dark without hitting fool's gold?

We've had to baby proof the house too! Those glorious days of putting anything, anywhere have passed. Where the low lying and "much more attractive than these stinkin' toys" glassware once stood on a shelf, we've got a rocking horse. Where our dining room table sat there is an orange and blue play mat (Brain washing the Gator love early of course). Light sockets plugged. Dangerous and seedy chemicals put away. All small objects de-small-objected. Now if we could only keep him off the dog's bed.

In the end, we went from constantly worrying about his heart, to worrying about everything else that every parent does. It is great, because we were concerned that his life would be about hospital stays and surgery. It's not at all. In fact, it is only a small part of what makes up Holden.

A few weeks ago a few family and friends got together to celebrate his first birthday. With that came the ceremonial first birthday smash cake given to babies to do whatever they please with. Before allowing young Holden to have at it we took a picture as a family. My aunt, frazzled by the fact that we didn’t want to put such an innocent object in his direct line of sight to pose for a picture questioned us about it.

I explained it nicely, “He’ll attack it and your family picture will be ruined.” I knew what everyone didn’t know, that a kid who once struggled to eat, attacks his food like a chummed and angry Great White.

As I placed the beautiful confection in front of him, I thought, someone must have spent a good amount of time assembling that thing. It didn’t take long. Think...the scene in Jurassic Park where the cow is slowly dropped into the raptor pen. Holden disassembled every crevice of the cake. When it was done there was nothing left to enjoy unless you’re a fan of muffin bottoms (Which, in turn would put you on a pedestal next to Snagglepus on the annoyance meter).