1 Year of the World Being a Brighter Place

(MISSOURI/ILLINOIS) — I hope one day my son knows the joy he’s brought to so many people.

He’s a rockstar in his family. Loved by parents, grandparents, great-grand parents, cousins, uncles and aunts and more! The way strangers look at him when passing by. “What a handsome boy.” “He’s got beautiful blue eyes!” “Oh my, look! He’s waving at me!”

The countless stories I could tell of older adults’ eyes shining as he waves at them. The stories of young kids saying “aww he’s so cute!” as he just looks at them and smiles.

While my wife and I hope to one day have a baseball team of little Sheehans running around (only halfway joking), I told her the other day “If Bennett’s the only child we have, we are still so blessed.” And I meant it!

I then also joke that we are going to have “Benito,” “Benita,” “Benetito,” “Benjamin,” and “Benny” as the names of our future children. Hopefully we can be a little more creative with our names one day.

I want him to know that I’m proud of him. I want him truly know it.

I want him to be a better man than me. I think he will be better than me in every way, and I sure hope so!

When he was first born, we called him our “little lion.” It was because of the way he “ferociously” attacked a bottle I was attempted to feed him. He’s just like his mom and dad. He loves food!

And that’s so true today. As he reaches the end of year 1, the little man has tried over 200 foods! We decided to go the baby-led weaning route, and started feeding him “real people food” around 6 months. We found this to be a great way to let him to try all kinds of different foods and see what he liked!

So far? Green beans, pork steaks and apple sauce are a few of his favorites. As almost every kid does, he also loves cheese.

It’s ended up encouraging us to eat healthier. Because when you realize you have to provide daily nutrition for a baby, you don’t want to be feeding him fried foods and dessert all day long! It’s helped us have a more well-rounded diet full of lean meats, fruits and vegetables (although we still love ice-cream and Butterburgers from Culver’s, don’t get me wrong).

It’s been so fun traveling with Bennett by our side, too. We’ve gone to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Missouri and Florida with B in the last year and it puts a whole new view on travel. Will he remember it? No. Will we? Absolutely. His mother and I like to take photos and videos of… well, just about everything, but travel is a big one! I look forward to the day where he can hold a conversation with us and we can tell him all about our adventures.

BB (Before Bennett) – I was not a worrier at all. I was the calming voice in our marriage while Rachel can be a bit … not calm. Now with a son? In many ways, it’s flipped.

I now work in the health care field, so daily I’m writing stories about different diseases and speaking to doctors about viruses, vaccines, exercise, pain, really anything you can imagine. And as I knock on wood at the desk I’m sitting at right now, we’ve been blessed that Bennett has been of great health this first year. Has he had a small cold here and there? Sure. But – when he has that cold – I am on high-alert.

“Get out the thermometer. Feel his forehead. Let me listen to his breathing. Has he been coughing? What’s his nose been sounding like?” All things that have come out of my mouth as I’ve worried about my son.

I remember the first night we had with Bennett in the hospital. He was born at 1:17 AM so after we had our skin-to-skin with him and then he met his grand parents on Rachel’s side, we finally got to lay down and get some shut eye. Except that didn’t happen to me.

“How is he supposed to be breathing? Can you see his chest go up and down as he breathes? I can’t hear him very well while he sleeps. Is he okay?” Every few minutes I was getting up out of the couch to see if I could hear his tiny breaths as he slept outside the womb for the first time.

“Okay, I can hear him breathing. Let me try to get some sleep,” I say until I continue to stare at him and get up every 5 minutes to make sure he’s still breathing.

It’s been a beautiful thing to see Rachel be a mother to Bennett as well. She loves the living daylights out of that kid, and she’ll make sure he knows it as he gets older! I think many times I can draw out the BIGGEST laughs from Bennett. I can be crazy and make the weirdest noises to get him to giggle, tickle him, throw him in the air and catch him, and make faces at him. But there’s something about the mother/child connection that is so special. Sometimes, that boy just needs his mama.

But one day, when the monsters are hiding under his bed or in the closet, he’s gonna need his daddy to scare them off. And I will.

I just bought his very first Bible today (it’s Tuesday, September 5th). I try to pray over him every day and read devotions or Bible verses while he’s around. There’s always room for improvement! I hope one day he enjoys reading this Holy Bible, koalas on the cover and all.

Speaking of animals, every time he sees a puppy he giggles. It’s the cutest thing. And when he can talk, we’re definitely going to be suckered into buying him a puppy. We stop by a store and he points at a stuffed animal and I buy it for him! I’m definitely in trouble there.

I hope I can be a loving father to him. One he can come to when times get hard. One who encourages him to do whatever he sets his mind to. One who can offer constructive advice but in a loving way. Luckily, I have a great wife who can tell me when I’m being a little too “firm.”

We love you, buddy. I thank God for you every day. I know you’re going to change the world.

Love, your dad