#1 No Time Like the First Time

In an instant our camera shuttered, and not a moment since left any doubt as to my favorite picture of Buxton. Fancier cameras may take sharper images. Skilled photographers surely come away with better shots. But I have a hard time believing there ever will be a photograph I love more than this one.

When this picture snapped, only Anna and I knew Buxton by name. When this picture snapped, only a midwife and a handful of helpers even joined us in knowing he was born. When this picture snapped, Buxton had no idea what in the world was happening except that he--somehow--rested in the arms of his mother.

I see every bit of that picture when I look at it. I see how scared and uncertain we were, too. I see how much changed between that time and this one. Maybe for that reason, most of all, I treasure this image. On this Christmas Eve, a time already set aside for gifts unlike any other, I continue to treasure it--and, in the truest sense of Christmas, share it with others.

#2 Close to You

While a parent is never far from a newborn child, he is never close enough, either. Every night I hold Buxton and kiss him, pulling him to myself as if the distance between a hug were a hundred miles. Anna feels the same way. She tells me at least once a day that she could just eat him up, despite my advising against it.

This picture tells a story of closeness. If anyone held my face in the way I hold his here, there is no telling what I might do. Suffice it to say only a handful of people, if any at all, should attempt it. Yet here I hold Buxton not for any particular reason other than thinking up no better way in that moment to be nearest him.

He looks at the camera as if he knows something. I hold his face as if fixing his stare. Yet knowing neither to be true in that moment makes this image all the more memorable. This image shines light on a closeness no idea could capture, no hand could craft.

It is the closeness of a father and his son in a moment once lived and forever left where it was found, discarded for ten thousand more just like it.

#3 Purple People

A father brings his boy to a football game. Players struggle, the crowd roars and the home team sends everyone out of the stadium happy. Just a day, but a day that begins more than most.

The father thinks of contests to come, of Saturday afternoons in favorite restaurants, of campus walks through halls and hills meant for memory making. Perhaps, even, that father allows himself to consider the possibility that his son finds some way back to that place on his own, maybe even marching in that same band his father did.

Instead that boy grows up to play atop that field, donning the colors his father first showed him. As true with each generation as the last, they never fade. In fact the treasures taken from that antiquated stadium only grow with time, from playing catch with daddy just after the final horn sounds to catching passes between the whistles.

So imagine the surprise that little boy finds when--long after his days as a child or even a young man atop that field are spent--he finds his finest hour in that place waited until he could bring his own son back and be father himself.

#4 Splish Splash

Thankfully camera lenses only capture so much, leaving the rest to the imagination. In this shot Buxton and daddy take their first bath together in the big boy tub. Like any first, this bath left a little figuring out to do.

Daddy did what daddies do, playing with the water as much as cleaning with it. Buxton did what little boys do, half cringing in that squinted, wrinkled look that almost asks aloud what in the world his daddy is doing. We both did what came naturally.

And if nature speaks for much, that first bath will not be the last time. Daddy plays with Buxton every day, and will just as long as he can. Buxton will wonder what daddy is doing, what he is thinking, maybe even what mommy would think of it all.

And when he does, daddy will have this picture to show Buxton--if nothing else--that such a time coming is not the first.

#5 Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. His outfit alludes to it. His expression sears it like a hot iron to my soul. Not that he seems particularly thankful, but that his being in our lives surpasses any thankful moment we could otherwise endure.

So often the things in life most warranting thanksgiving go without it. Stop breathing for two minutes. Go a week without water. Spend a weekend away from a spouse. What matters most often slips through the common cracks of appreciation.

Then comes along a picture like this one. Taken in a hasty moment never to be repeated again, Buxton reveals yet another face to answered prayers, another example why his mere presence humbles two lucky parents in quiet, unexpected moments every day of his life.

Thanksgiving. Two dozen times experienced yet not once truly lived--until now.

#6 Baba and Buxton

Some pictures need no words. Yet having little else to do, I might as well offer the few I have.

This picture shows, perhaps, the person I respect most in this entire world. She is the one holding the person I treasure unlike any other. Even for someone who makes his living describing things, I find myself at a loss.

If you know Baba, you have no need of my superlatives. Otherwise, you likely would not believe them. She is honest, kind, compassionate. She demonstrates the heart of a servant without ever saying so. She is remarkable beyond my ability to say so.

So the closeness beaming from this image humbles me. Three generations separate these two. A hundred miles separate them. So much else in this world probably should, yet in this solitary moment nothing seems to matter except an embrace savored by one in an instant and the other, hopefully, forever.

This picture gladdens me because I know I could never fully describe Baba to someone who never met her. Thankfully for Buxton, he never needs worry about that.

#7 Daddy See, Daddy Do

There must be ten thousand reasons to take a baby seriously. So every now and then a reminder comes due that babies are about the most fun a person can have, that they are meant for playing, for laughing. Sometimes they even make laughter of us all.

Like this little picture of Buxton watching television. He loves it, especially during football games. No idea where he got that one. Buxton has a favorite news station, one he will watch for an entire telecast, crying only if the channel changes. So when Buxton began sitting up only a month or so in, it seems he already had an idea what he would do with his new found talent.

Look at the way he stares right through me and the camera as if we were not there, treating us both as any other obstruction separating him from his favorite program. Again, no idea where he got that one. There is no telling how many pictures might be taken of Buxton sitting on the couch watching television during his lifetime. I just doubt any one of them will match his first.

#8 The Arms of Love

You never truly realize just how much a baby needs other people until you parent one. Everything about them requires constant attention. Fortunately this baby boy has two parents who could not make their way at raising him alone if they wanted to.

Among a hundred or so pictures of someone else looking after our son, I come across this one. Two looks on two faces speak beyond words. In a loved uncle I see someone I trust, someone I admire, someone in whose arms I willingly place my dearest treasure. In a resting son I see comfort suggesting that same trust, maybe someday even that same admiration.

What else I see wrapped up in this hammocked embrace is a man who would gladly do exactly what he is doing whether I asked him to or not. There are no expressions to convey what that means to me, that so many people in our lives not only tolerate or even accept Buxton, but love him dearly. This moment belongs to an uncle and a nephew. It is mine to see, but theirs to savor.

I feel somewhat like an intruder within it, happy to do both.

#9 When You're Smiling

The old song never tolled truer. When Buxton smiles, my whole world smiles with him. Here he is before such expressions became daily occurrence. When this picture snapped, an entire day of changing diapers and wiping up second hand milk and general parenting earned its keep in a look just like this one. A day with this kind of smile was a good day.

His mother holds him here. You can see her hands lifting him, almost as if his joy comes from flying through the air. That part of the picture makes for its own smiles. He has no idea just how far we hope to lift him up, or what it would mean should we be able. He has no idea the joys we hope to help him find, the heights we hope to help him reach.

He only knows the touch of his mother, and the way it makes him feel in a moment. Look at him. Look at his face. Now tell me why he has need of knowing anything else.

#10 The Stare

Anyone trying to photograph an infant knows there are easier things in life. Looking toward the camera is its own accomplishment, let alone making some face resembling anything other than gas or general disinterest. So something like this comes as a treasure.

This picture comes from Craytonville, a place with its own share of wonderful memories and home to Buxton's great grandmother, Baba. In the picture Baba's sister-in-law holds Buxton in two arms that likely would not hold him up any longer. Look how small he is at only a couple of months. Those clothes are packed away now, fitting only for some other child to come.

He is so much bigger now. His expressions so much truer, more vivid. This little baby pictured would barely recognize Buxton now. And for that reason, perhaps most of all, this picture resonates. In his stare I see a child from another time, another place. I see a child I loved as passionately as the little boy I hold now. In this picture, his stare seems to suggest he might just see the same thing.

Honorable Mention

Here are a few last minute honorable mentions before the countdown begins tomorrow. Enjoy. The first is Buxton's first Panthers game, where he watched them beat the Chargers on the last play of the game. Daddy accidentally yelled into Buxton's ear.



This one daddy calls happy hat, sad face.



A day at the zoo is enough to wear a boy out.



Tell me it doesn't look like somebody just told a joke, and Buxton and Aunt Connie got the punch line at the same time.



A keeper. Buxton and daddy the day our boy arrived.

Tick Tick Tick

So I have no idea what possessed me to think I would be able to choose just ten pictures. Who knew four months could include so many images? Well, I did choose my ten and they are coming beginning Dec. 15. Again, these are not all the pictures taken of Buxton between birth and Thanksgiving, just the ones I like the most from the ones I could readily find.

Anyway, there were so many good shots that I thought I would start off with a little honorable mention. So here is the first set of photos not quite up to the challenge, but worth sharing anyway. Enjoy.

First we have a few entries from Florence.





Next we have Buxton enjoying Daddy's favorite pastime.




Be sure to check back between now and Dec. 15 for more close-but-not-quites, as well as for the unveiling of number ten in only eight days.

Wonder Woman

So this picture I found is not very big. There is not one large enough for this post.

My wife is Wonder Woman. I knew it before Buxton was born, but somehow I know it even more now. She is the superhero of the family. She's the rock star. Last night she proved it again.

Buxton has been sick the past few days. Not a cough and a cold sick. Not take a Tylenol and call me in the morning sick. This was "somebody has to do something daddy finds morally questionable to make Buxton feel better" sick. The mere thought of it sent me to another room.

But Anna did it. She made him feel better. This morning--his four-month birthday no less--he was as happy a little boy as I have ever seen. And I was just as happy, if not more so. After all, we have a superhero in the family.

Checking back in

Ok, so it's been a while since we last posted. Thanksgiving was great, and we got plenty of last minute options for the upcoming countdown. We spent time with my mother's mother and her family in Craytonville, SC (of Marvel at the Night fame). We could post pictures for days, but here is one that we took and now serves as our most recent family photo. And for those out-of-towners, I'm playing Joseph in the Christmas cantata at church. They should preemptively answer what questions I know you want to ask.

Check back soon for some honorable mention photos, and then the top ten.