On the amazing Jay

It's Tuesday. Which means I'm going to introduce you to someone. Who better than the namesake of this blog? My amazing son, Jay.

This is my baby, Jay. Jason Edward Ritchie, if you want to get technical. But I just call him Jay most of the time, unless he's in trouble. You can gauge his degree of trouble by how many names I yell at him from the other room.

He's pretty much the most amazing person I've ever met. He has overcome a lot of the adversity that is presented to a guy who is born 12 weeks too early. He's also the strongest person I know. Jay inspires me every day.

Jay loves music. He's a big fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We've seen there Slane Castle DVD over 100 times. He's sneaky enough to press play again if I leave the room towards the end of the DVD.

He loves to take a bath. His favorite bath time activity is to laugh so hard he falls over and gets a mouthful of water just to panic me.

Jay's best friend is his grampa. They like to set in the recliner and watch Sanford and Son. Jay likes Red Fox's deep voice. We actually own season of the show on DVD, because Jay loves it so much.

Jay loves Elmo and Veggie Tales. He has a singing Junior Asparagus that has been sleeping with him since he was a year old. It creeps Micah out because it sings, "La la, la la la la, la la la." He says it sounds demonic. I will admit that when Junior needs batteries, he even flips me out a little.

Jay's naughty. He eats play-doh, finger paints his own face, and likes to dump Lemmy's food and water bowl. His favorite place in the whole house is at his daddy's feet in the music room while dad plays bass. Jay loves drumming and he has an entire collection of real drums to play with.

It's still hard for me to believe that this little guy has been calling me Mama for 9 long years. He's a third grader and went to a new school this year. From what I can tell, he's just as loved by the students and teachers at his new school as he was at the school he went to for the last 3 years.

Jay is just a lovable little guy. I love him more than life itself. He's most definitely the love of my life. He has the amazing ability that most everyone he encounters falls in love with him, as well. I thank God every day for choosing me to be Jay's mommy. It's the best thing that ever happened to me.