I haven’t talked much about my son. We call him the Viking. Honestly, he refers to himself as Viking. He is HUGE. He is a personal trainer by trade and a body builder by sport and getting ready for a competition and at 6′ 4″ he is over 250 pounds last he told me. Not a small man. He wasn’t little as a child either which made raising him somewhat of a challenge. He has always been tall and large, always off the charts that they use for children and in addition very verbal. The issue would arise when he would behave his age. He might cry for some reason and a stranger observing would look at him oddly and I would say, “he is only three” but he looked six. In first grade, he needed a desk from the fourth-grade class because he was so much bigger than “normal” first graders. I will always be thankful for Miss Tatro who was very protective of him.

You know the phrase; “he’s too smart for his own good?” That applied to him as well. You wouldn’t think that it would be a bad thing but he was so smart that he would get homework completed quickly and then…you guessed it, get into trouble because he was bored. By the time he was in high school he stopped doing homework all together and was getting A’s on the test. It was hard to make him understand WHY he needed to do the homework and he graduated with a rather low G.P.A. despite being very intelligent.

My Viking played football in high school because like the guy in the movie Remember the Titans he figured if he had to be in school he might as well be hitting someone. If you met him you would quickly find out he likes to be a tough guy. He doesn’t mind being strong or large. He is very funny and his humor can be very inappropriate. (yes, he gets that from me.) Oh and he is honest to a fault.

What my Viking might not let you see at first is how much he loves. I think that is how he became the Viking to protect himself. He loves very deeply. When he is at his grandparents he asks if they need him to do anything. My dad usually has him take the salt to the basement for the water softener. Does he have to have the Viking do it – no – but it sure is nice to have someone else do it when your a Poppa. He gets decorations out for his Gam Gam and leaves her “Love You” notes in the steam on the mirror in the bathroom. He is probably the only one in the family that can do that and not be told to clean the mirror. He helps me out when I text him, we always have a long chat when I go by the Protein shop he works at AND he hugs me and says “I love you” when I leave even if people are in there with us.

My Viking is strong like a bull and can be a gentle as a lamb and stubborn as a mule. He makes life interesting. With him, there is never a dull moment. Oh, there have been times I wished for more peace and quiet but like I said my Viking loves deeply and has a stubborn love for his family unlike I have ever seen. A loving sweet Viking – unpredictable!