Tanner: The Early Years

Tanner was born a scant 18 months after his brother Casey, and we barely had time to wrap our minds around the idea of another baby. The pregnancy, like my other two, was non-eventful.

Tanner came barreling into the world at nearly ten pounds. He was perfect in every way. He was a good eater, and he loved to be held, curling his chubby arm around a nearby neck.

He did have a couple of strange, if non-life-threatening medical issues. Shortly after he was born, he developed a hydrocele in his testicles. This caused them to swell to 4-5 times their normal size. Not to worry, said the doc. The swelling will go down soon.

He also had a tear duct that would clog regularly, and this would cause his eye to swell shut. Warm compresses helped him, but I began to doubt my ability to care for my small charge.

Tanner also acquired something we would call the "Unicorn." As he was learning to walk, he would occasionally stumble and hit his head in the middle of his forehead. For several months, it was a perma-bump.

When he was about 2, his pediatrician told me he was concerned about Tanner's delayed speech development. This could be caused, in part, by Tanner's older siblings doing the talking for him. "Tanner wants some juice," was a refrain we heard from Casey many times.

Soon, however, Tanner was talking up a storm. Video from a trip to the beach shows a loquacious Tanner asking questions, barking directives. "Mommy, where does the ocean come from? Mommy, could you please hurry and open my Slim Jim?"

Tanner was always hungry. We kidded that he was like the puppy in 101 Dalmatians that says, "I'm hungry, Mother. I really am."

One time, I was having a nice moment with Tanner. He was sitting next to me, and we were chatting - rather, Tanner was chatting - and he looked up at me and said, "Do you know you have a vampire tooth?"

Apparently, teeth had a special fascination for Tanner at that age, because shortly after the vampire tooth episode, we were in line at a store. A man was behind us, talking about something to someone. Blah Blah. I didn't realize that Tanner was observing him. "Mommy," Tanner said. "That man's missing a tooth!"

Perhaps my most favorite Tanner-ism, however, is one day, when I was taking a nap, I asked Tanner if he wanted to cuddle with me for a minute. He said sure, and climbed up into bed with me. After a bit, he said, "Has it been a midnit yet?"  I said yes, and he got down out of bed.