Chapter 2:  Shawn's Younger Years.

Shawn grew up very quickly, at times making us grow OLD very quickly.  

25 January 1978 Shawn smiled for the first time.  We were not sure if he was reacting to what we were doing, hatching some diabolical plan or merely passing gas.  He also turned over in his crib by himself on this date.  He was beginning to experiment with locomotion.  Little did we know how dangerous this was going to be.
5 March 1978 On this date Shawn recognized Sylvia.  On this same day he also laughed for the first time.  Now I'm not saying these two events are related, however....
15 April 1978 Shawn says his first word.  Ok, "Da-da" is not really a word, but it was close enough for us. 
12 June 1978 Shawn learned to crawl which meant all the knick-knacks on the bookshelves were in jeopardy.  We refused to "hide" the breakables, choosing instead to attempt to teach Shawn not to touch things that were not his.  It was an interesting battle of wills.  I'm still not sure who won.
6 July 1978 Sat up alone and stood up alone in his crib.  You should have heard him laugh when he saw our reaction.  It was like he was saying, "Watch out folks, pretty soon I'll be breaking out of this jail."
11 July 1978 Shawn got his first tooth in.  He promptly used it to puncture his water-filled teething ring.  We tried to make sure he nibbled on his own food and not our fingers.
Peek-a-boo Shawn liked to find unique applications for his surroundings.  Here he emptied his toy box to create his own "fort."  He would also stand of the top shelf of it to reach the light switch. 

Notice the wall socket on the wall to the right of the toy box.  Childproof sockets were a waste of time.  He would defeat them as fast as they were installed.  In fact, he would have to open the cabinets for Sylvia when we installed "childproof" latches on them!

 
1 November 1979 Shawn broke his leg while at the baby sitters.  He had to have a full length "walking" cast put on it.  But that only slowed him down for a few minutes.  Soon he was dancing in that cast.
22 December 1979 Shawn is about to give Santa a kiss.  He would do anything for a new toy.
17 May 1980 Shawn was fascinated with anything that made noise.  He would pretend to vacuum his room.  Of course, after he got older, you couldn't bribe him into cleaning up.
23 September 1980 Shawn was easily bored and would often pull all of his toys out the toybox at the same time, you know, just for variety.  One day we made the mistake of telling him to get all of his toys off the floor of his room. 

He did.

We're not sure where he planned to sleep that night.
Outdoors Shawn loved to be outdoors.  Of course that was before we started taking family camping trips.  He also liked to have his picture taken.  He would strike a pose and shout, "Picture me!"

These pictures are some of the few things we have left of Shawn.
5 December 1980 Here's Shawn making friends with the Big Guy in Red again.  Shawn loved to get presents.  Unfortunately,  his birthday was two days before Christmas which made for a long wait between gifts.

 
Summer 1981 There is a park in Clinton, Iowa called Eagle Point Park.  In it is a small "tower" that overlooks the Mississippi River.  Here Shawn drags Sylvia up the tower one more time for a look around. What a character!
Puppet master This was one of Shawn's favorite toys.  He could carry on conversations with this puppet for hours.  Of course he used a different "voice" for the puppet than his own.
Summer 1982 Perhaps Shawn's best "buddy" while he was growing up, was a "mutt" named Dolly that we got from the animal shelter.  He would "torture" that poor dog, but Dolly could not leave Shawn alone.  Shawn would either camp out in the back yard with Dolly, or bring her into his room to spend the night.  One day he got a can of my black spray paint and gave Dolly a makeover. 

You could almost say we were happy when Shawn was old enough to go to elementary school.  We thought our job would get easier.  Yeah, right.

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