Thursday, May 14, 2009

Happy Birthday, Son

This is the 30th anniversary of our famous recording for posterity when Roger tried to prove that Jordan's first word was "light."

We had the big party and dinner for the one-year-old and Dad turned on the tape recorder and asked Jordan what that thing was above the table. "Can you say light?" Silence. He had said it before, but not on tape for posterity, and Roger was determined to prove that his child was sophisticated enough to say this word instead of the usual ma-ma, da-da. "Say light." More silence. It went on for several minutes like this.

So after much coaxing and no response, the conversation went on with Jen and Elin talking about other things Jordan could do, and what the family was doing. When the attention left him, Jordan decided to "perform," but the rest of us were so busy with our conversation that we didn't hear him. Only when we played it back later did we realize that in his background babble he was actually saying "light." We were talking about something else, and his little voice can be heard repeating, "Yite, yite, yite." We have laughed about it over the years and tried not to ignore him anymore when he finally does what we ask him to do.

He is the light of our lives, and that's one reason I sent him a lamp for his birthday. It just seemed like the thing to do.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

He definitely is a light. I think it's people who are willing to do things in the background who actually accomplish things. They're the best people around. People who only do things if they're sure it will get noticed aren't worth as much. Happy Birthday, bro.

Pam Williams said...

Still we feel bad that we let an opportunity pass to praise and encourage our boy. He's always been the "cleanup" hitter, going the extra mile to see that things are done the right way. Those dependable people become the "go to" guys wherever they are. It's the Publican who is interested in the praise of the world. Still, everybody needs praise now and then, even if it isn't seen by the world.