Bobby's 24th Birthday

Today is Bobby's 24th birthday. Here are a few of my favorite Bobby stories...

He was the second smallest baby of our four. Weighing in at a little less than 7 pounds, he was born hungry. He grabbed the blanket they wrapped him in and began to chew on it. We were excited to have a son and we named him Robert Joseph Cross III.

I have a very distinct memory of the Sunday after Bobby was born. Bob was the songleader in our church and I was the pianist. At one point in the service, Bob slipped out of the auditorium and retrieved Bobby from the nursery. Bob looked very proud as he carried (like a football) his first-born son down the center aisle of the church and handed him to the pastor. The pastor then held him and prayed a prayer of dedication that God would work in Bobby's life and use him in His service.

Bobby was a very sweet and loving boy. When he learned to say "mommy" he said it ad nauseum. It didn't bother me, though. He also called anything round (peas, bubbles, etc.) a "ball!" Bobby was very excited when his little brother Jeff was born. He was a wonderful two-year-old big brother.

Bobby was more rambunctious in the grocery store than the rest of the kids. He's the only one who bumped into things and knocked them off the shelves. Breaking a jar of jelly was bad enough, but when he spilled cooking oil on aisle 3, he earned a reputation with the store's cleanup crew. I think they had his picture posted in the stock room.

One warm summer, we took the kids to King's Island (amusement park). Darcy and Mandy were the only kids tall enough to ride The Beast (roller coaster), so Bob and I took turns taking each of them on the ride. While I was with the other three kids, waiting for Bob and Darcy to finish the ride, Mandy saw a little inchworm crawling on the sidewalk. She and Jeffrey stooped down with me to look at it. We were just amazed at how God had made this little creature that could "walk" across the pavement by drawing its body together and then stretching it out. Suddenly, a foot came out of nowhere and stomped the poor critter. Bobby!

On one occasion, we thought we'd be facing a personal lawsuit for Bobby's actions. He and his friend Matthew were walking around K-Mart with Matthew's parents. The parents made the mistake of letting Bobby and Matthew go to the toy department. Matthew had smuggled in a can of "fart spray" and the boys decided to covertly spray it around the toy department to test people's reactions. They got a reaction all right. One mother's toddler started crying and the mother accused the boys of spraying something in her baby's face. She dragged them up
to the Service Desk and paged Matthew's parents. Thankfully, we never heard from anyone's lawyer.

At Stonybrook Junior High, Bobby was voted the funniest guy in school. He and Jeff are both extremely funny, but in different ways. Getting the two of them together can be dangerous, so maybe it's best that Jeff moved halfway round the world. They still like to cut up on family vacations.

In high school, Bobby joined the Color Green drama team with Mandy. That was a pretty surprising move for both of them since they have a morbid fear of speaking in public.

One friend Bobby met while in high school was Stephen Scharbrough. That's another dangerous combination. One night Stephen said, "Let's go get thrown out of Marsh." So Bobby and Stephen went into Marsh grocery store and began bumping into displays of cans. Bobby already had experience in this area. Of course, being polite trouble makers, they said, "My fault." and picked up what they knocked down. Since no one was throwing them out of the store, they decided to get into the party ice freezer. As shoppers passed by, the boys would knock on
the glass door and motion to them that "it's cold in here." The manager threw them out.

One a really windy night, while Bobby still lived at our house, he was awakened by a loud sound like a door slamming downstairs. He knocked on our bedroom door to make sure we were awake. Bob got up and began searching the closet for his shotgun. Bobby grabbed a pocket knife and headed down the stairs. By the time Bob got to the stairs, Bobby had already determined the house was undisturbed. We never figured out what the sound was, but I was impressed with his bravery.

On family vacation in Orlando in 2003, we went to a Japanese steakhouse. They seated the 8 of us at a table for 10. I pointed to the two empty seats and told Bobby and Jeff they needed to have wives in these seats by vacation next year. Bobby looked at Jeff and said, "We'd better get busy." By the time family vacation rolled around a year later, Bobby had married Leigh Ann, my favorite daughter-in-law. Jeff is running a little behind schedule.

Bobby and Leigh Ann are very well-matched. They are good "parents" to Barkley and Weezer, but they need to have a real baby. How about by vacation time next year?