An Official Godfather

This past weekend I was in Houston visting Patty's brother, Brian, his wife Kesa, and their 9-week old son, Athanasius James (A.J. for short.) It was AJ's baptism and Brian was gracious enough to ask me to be AJ's godfather, which was quite an honor for me. When Brian called around the middle of January, I was perfectly content with talking about the NFL Playoffs or how conference play had started or about our jobs. But when he asked if I wanted to be AJ's godfather, I will floored.

(Patty kindly informed me that I was something like their 4th choice for godfather, so that quickly brought me back to Earth. It sent me down Memory Lane to my sophomore year in high school when I was asked to go to prom with a JUNIOR GIRL!!! As excited as I was to attend, after I accepted her offer, the young lady - who will remain nameless - was relieved that finally, on the seventh try, she would be going to prom. Awesome.)

The weekend was a complete success for me. Not only did I enjoy holding AJ and carrying around the house, but the two of us got to spend some quality time together contemplating the roles each of us would play.

"Is a godfather like a crazy uncle?" I would ask him.

Apparently speech recognition comes much later that 3 months. AJ would just utter some breathing noices. Actually he quite a "burrower," like a gopher or a puppy trying to get under blankets. He's got a strong right arm cross and power to hold on to my massive shoulders, even at a ripe age.

"The way I see it," I continued during one of our three pre-nap discussions, "crazy uncle and godfather share similar roles. If you feel like you ever need someone to laugh, you can call me. Right? That works for me."

More breathing...eyes begin to get heavy. I have a lot of experience in these kinds of situations from talking to Patty. If I keep talking, the subject will eventually fall into a REM 4 slumber within one minute.

"I'm going to give you one piece of advice - stay loyal. Don't just start liking your Red Sox because they are good and forget them when they only win 90 games."

AJ seemed to awaken a little with that. We bounced around a little longer before the godson was too tuckered out to continue with our back-and-forth chit chat. I'm sure that he was thinking, "maybe if I close my eyes, I will be in my bathtub at not in this guy's grip (AJ loves bathtime, by the way.) But, with that first nugget of wisdom, I was on my way to being a godfather.

AJ is in for such a treat.