Happiness

I have so much to be grateful for right now. I had a special birthday, consisting of a day at the beach, shopping, dinner at a fancy restaurant, and watching wild dolphins play in the ocean. Now I'm currently sitting in our next hotel (The Grand Marriott in Point Clear, Alabama) and I doubt anyone who is reading this has even heard of this hotel, let alone the town of Point Clear. I will blog more about the amazing historical resort, golf course, spa, pool, landscaped grounds, and views of Mobile Bay later. But as I describe all this, you might think that the blog title is describing the emotion I feel as I experience all this fun and vacation, but its not. I want to talk about another kind of happiness...

The hotel here is very large and has a large conference center, so naturally there are several events going on. Tyler is here with a conference put on by the University of Alabama, Shell Oil has a convention this week too, there are a few family events, and today there is even a wedding on the property! Most of the guests (including Tyler) are busy running around from meeting to meeting but I've been relaxing, just enjoying wandering around the property with Jackson. We shouldn't be making much of an impact on the people here, but can I tell you how many people have noticed us? I can't walk more than 15 yards without being stopped by someone who wants to get a closer look at my little guy. They comment on his beautiful eyes, chubby cheeks, and cute smile. They ask his name, ask how old he is, ask if he's always this happy, etc. But the best part about it is, when the confrontation has ended and we walk our opposite directions, Jackson's new friend is happier than he or she was before. They are smiling, they are whispering to each other how precious he is. I love how Jackson (or I guess I could just say babies) bring such happiness to people's lives.

For example: this morning I was holding him as I was walking up the main staircase in our lobby. Right then, one of the meetings for the Shell Convention let out and all the attendees started walking down the same staircase we were walking up. These were 30-60 year old southern men ready to be on their lunch break. Now if I had been by myself, this would have been a non-event. However, since I was holding Jackson and going against the flow of dozens of people, I (aka he) was the star of the moment. People were oooing and ahhing at the smiley little guy. One guy asked to hold him and then a crowd formed, a minute later he was being passed around by the several people who wanted to hold him, some of whom "hadn't held a baby for years." I would have been more alarmed by this, but these people were so friendly and relaxed, they didn't think twice about how that might be a little strange. When I finally got a hold of him again we continued walking to our room, but don't even get me started about the ladies of a "quilting guild" who swarmed us 30 seconds later. One lady even exclaimed, "that's the baby I saw this morning!" I guess she had mentioned Jackson to her friends.

I really don't know what else to say, but I just had to share this. I've never experience anything like this before. We get attention in Orlando, but I've never seen anything like this. Maybe its just that the people of Alabama are so much more down to earth? Maybe Jackson is just at the perfect age, he's so little and smiley and happy that its hard to ignore him. He really has an amazing ability to change peoples lives and I'm happy to introduce him to the world.