One more cup of coffee

Our son, the freak?

It’s just two more weeks before we take Nathan’s brace for his club feet off during the day. It won’t come a day too soon. There are many reasons for this (some less obvious than others), but one of the reasons we’ll be glad is the attention that it gets.

Certainly I’m used to people looking at Nathan. Hey, I think he’s the cutest baby ever, so who wouldn’t want to look at him? But after a while, understandable thought it may be, it is sometimes tiring seeing people look at Nathan, smile, then see the smile fade to a frown as their eyes track down to the brace.

Even more amazing are the comments that people make. A couple of weeks ago, a man sitting next to us in a restaurant turned to his teenage daughter and asked, “What is that thing?” (Meredith turned and answered him, and then watched the teenager try to melt into the floor in embarrassment.) Last week, someone walked by, looked down at the brace and exclaimed, “Oh my God!”

It’s not like he has an extra head, or four arms or something. It’s a metal bar that runs between his shoes. That’s it.