Happy Birthday Calvin!!!

Happy birthday to my oldest son!  Who would have thought that we would have made it all these years without me maiming him!  He has certainly been one of the most challenging to raise.  This guys entry into the world had a unique start. I distinctly remember being in labor at the hospital as his father asked friends if they had met me and then proceeded to bring them in to meet me - while in labor! 

We waited all day for this little guy to arrive.  And when he did, there was not two inches of extra space in the delivery room.  We had student nurses there who had been with me all day and wanted to see his arrival.  We had nurses from two shifts because this young man was born at 3:00 which was "Change of Shift" and everyone wanted to meet him!

He was a bundle of energy from the day he was born!  He went straight from sitting to running.  No crawling or walking for him.  He obviously had places to go.  He received the nickname "Calvin" because of the comic strip which was very popular at the time.  I swear that the cartoonist was living in our house because I kept seeing my son in his cartoons.  He was using my son's words, thoughts and deeds.

He was only four or five when we found out that he does not do well with caffeine.  I had given him a can of Mountain Dew thinking that it wasn't a cola, it was more like 7 Up so it should be good.  We were on a trip with friends and thank God they had a room across the hall from us at the hotel. That child ran back and forth through the rooms for at least three hours without stopping. Now, I may have been foolish in not knowing how much caffeine is in Mountain Dew, but it did not take us long to put that information to good use.  From then on if "Doc" needed help around the house, like having a hole dug, we would give "Calvin" a little caffeine and we had a nice hole in minutes!

Now, please don't think that this was abusive.  We had to keep this boy busy or God only knows what his mind would dream up.  We saved chores like crushing aluminum cans for him.  He could do a mountain of them in minutes. He would take a sledge hammer in a vertical position and crunch down on the cans.  It was much more efficient though, when he stopped hitting himself in the forehead on the upswing.

He talked a mile a minute and was very loud!!! I even had the pediatrician check his hearing as a youngster because of it.  Hearing was fine.  He was just incredibly loud. 

Even without caffeine he was always operating at high speed.  We used to take videos of birthday parties and holidays.  You heard "Calvin's" voice a lot, occasionally you saw him in the film, but mostly he was a blur and a streak running in the background.  You also heard me a lot telling him to sit down.

We should have known he would head into medicine as a profession.  In Kindergarten, one of his teachers had heart surgery.  The teaching team decided to explain what was going on to the children in simple terms.  My son, argued with the teacher that the blood does not go from the heart into the body, it goes through the lungs.  She thought it was odd that he did not have a good understanding of circulation as both of his parents were medical professionals.  I had to explain to her that he was teaching her about how the blood is oxygenated before being pumped into the body.  This kid kept me on my toes every minute of every day!!!!!

Seriously, Happy Birthday to a very special young man.  We are so proud of the person and professional that you have become.  I am sure that you have even outgrown napping with your lunch tucked in your cheek!  I love you "Calvin"!