~925 weeks

 

Tonight on the eve of the first day of kindergarten, I hope I’ve done enough, been enough, experienced enough, soaked in enough and loved you enough.  Because tomorrow morning is a new beginning for you, and for  all of us.  They say that there are ~925 weeks in childhood (~18 years) and it feel like the first 260 went so fast.  What they also say is true – the days are long but the years are fast. 

 

Wasn’t it just yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital?  Wasn’t it just yesterday that we knew that the nickname Spunky was exactly the right one?  Wasn’t it just yesterday that we are finally able to keep up with your outgoing-ness and end-less energy?  (oh, yeah – it did seem like just yesterday….)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, here you are at 5 1/2 years old – ready to start your day tomorrow. 

 

This is now my boy who I still pick up and hold and hug like he was only 2 or 3 years old.  Why?  Well, partly because I still can (and ~50 lbs is no small feat, my friends, and 10 times his birth weight), and partly because he still needs it sometimes, partly because he still really likes it (and so do I) and partly because he still lets me.  I know someday soon, it will not happen anymore and I’ll be sad.  You wrap your arms around my and your legs are so long and strong, they wrap around my waist and I barely have to hold on.  I just have to prop you up on my forearms.  This is also the spot where we need to have our heart-to-hearts and express our feelings when they bubble over into tears and hurt out. 

 

(I don’t have a picture of me holding Alex like this – note to self – get one tomorrow before the walk to the bus stop…. sniff, sniff)

 

This is now my boy, who is so naturally athletic and curious – he will try anything – even paddle boarding – even though it was a-little-tiny-bit-to0-scary to go too deep for a while, but then was out in the “deep” water no problem in the matter of about an hour.  Confident and doing it all by himself.  This is like all things sports/athletics for him: basketball, T-ball, soccer, tennis, swimming, etc.  My active sporty boy.

 

 

 

 

This is also now my boy, who takes his sister (convinces her with his confidence) to let him take her for a ride, and they have a blast (it’s pretty shallow here though…. just for Mama’s sake!).

 

 

 

This is my ham of a boy – who still makes up fun silly things to do all the time.  And asks me to take a picture so he can then see the photo of himself on the back of the camera.  He also likes me to do this with taking movies.  Oh- I love this boy!

 

 

He also still runs through the sprinkler with me on hot days with full gusto!

 

Funny story – before Sara was born, Alex and I went to a playdate with 2 other moms and 3 other kids all around the same age, actually I think Alex may have been the youngest.  Alex and two of the kids were just having a blast.  Laughing and playing, and rolling on the ground, full belly laughs.  The mom of the quiet boy asked me – are you going to get a video of this?   I said no, but asked why?  Well, if her son were to do this, it would be very rare and she would want to capture the pure childhood joy on camera.  Oh, now I understood.  I just plainly said that he’s like this all the time and really wasn’t that unusual for him at all, and it hit me at that moment how special Alex is.  He is truly unique and absolutely himself each and every day. 

 

 

 

 

This is my boy, who made me a mother the day he was born, but also has molded me (each and every day…) into the mother I am today.  I think he is so fabulous, so outrageous, so fantastic – that sometimes I think we were made for each other. 

 

I love you!

 

What do 5 year olds do?

 

When I asked this question to Alex recently, this is what he did.

 

 

 

They, read Mommy, like this…

Happy Birthday Alex

Happy Birthday Alex!

You are two years old today.

We taught you to say "Happy Birthday" and you can say it very well now. You've even added on "Happy Birthday Alex".

When we ask you how old you are you say "Two!". You want to hold up two fingers, just like we do, but it's pretty darn difficult (one finger is so much easier!). So instead, you just happily and proudly say "Two!"

Love only describes a little bit of how Mama and Daddy feel about you. We love you so much and have enjoyed watching you grow. We can't imagine our lives with out you and when we look at pictures of ourselves before you were even a twinkle in your Daddy's eyes - it is difficult to imagine before you were born.

It's even more difficult to imagine how small you were when you were born and how much you've grown physically over the 2 years.

Born: 5 lbs 2 oz

2 years old: ~30 lbs

Born: 18.5 inches

2 years old: ~36 inches

We thought it would be fun to look back at some of the old pictures. Enjoy, my sweet!

Not too long before you were born (~28 weeks pregnant)
In the OR, just after you were born and your Daddy proudly carried you up to the NICU

You in the NICU, with your Daddy by your side - all night long.

The first chance I had to hold you in my arms - 2 days after you were born - a Wednesday. (not a great picture, but the emotions were overwhelming to Mama. Mama remembers this moment very clearly)

Our first "Family" picture.

A wonderful day in the hopital where I held you all day long.You slept a lot and were so cute when you slept. Two years later, I still watch you sleeping.
The day we brought you home from the hospital. I remember your Daddy, as we walked in the door of our house, said "What do we do now?" and it was a clear representation of what we were feeling.

After that - you wanted to be held a lot. You even wanted to sleep on me - most of the time - and made your requests known.

It's so difficult to remember how small you were.

Because now you are so big. You are so tall. You are so strong. You are so brave. In fact, you are fearless.

Flash foward to your first birthday - you loved balloons and had your first cupcake! You still love balloons and helped me add frosting and sprinkles to your cupcakes this morning that we sent to preschool.

You chowed down!

Yummy!


Happy Birthday, my love. We love you.

34 1/2 weeks in...

...over 34 1/2 weeks out.

I tried to time it just right.

But, then life stepped in and things got too busy (work, holidays, parties, sick, etc) for me to remember.

Remember to post that Alex has now been outside the womb for >34 1/2 weeks. (actually ~37 weeks!)

Can you believe it? Our little man is now almost 9 months old!

He is crawling faster and faster all the time and our two stairs in our kitchen are no problemo. He's up them in 2 seconds flat! He's pulling up on everything - even objects without a hand hold - like our sliding glass door. He's starting to take a step and move his hand along an object in order to move himself along. He's getting his top two teeth at the same time. :) He's still follicly challenged in the hair department, but he's eating well and as Lance's grandpa used to say to him "eat carrots to put hair on your chest!". He likes carrots... so, we'll see! Hopefully some of the hair ends up on his head. He's able to tell when we're going to put him in the highchair, exersaucer or any thing else and straightens his legs when he doesn't want to do it. He arches his back and tells us he wants out of things. Sometimes he even does this when he's not in anything (aka the floor) and he falls back and hits his head (not really funny... but, kinda). We have to keep him entertained when we (physically restrain) change his diaper since he and the diaper changing station aren't best of friends lately. He loves his tongue and we hope that he doesn't (with his new top and bottom teeth) bite it off. We just had to buy him some new pants since he is so tall, otherwise they all end up looking like shorts.

He has developed quite a personality in his 9 months out.

6 months old today

Dear Alex,

What a wonderful day today - 6 mo old! I can't believe it! Thinking back to the day you were born and all of the adventures we've had. You were so small with tiny little long fingers and wonderfully long eyelashes, even back then. Actually, I remember watching your eyelashes grow. You weren't born with SUCH long lashes, they grew in in the first weeks and since I was studying you all day (every day) I could see such small changes. You were so quiet back then... just sleeping and eating. All that eating sure helped you gain weight. You used to not have very many cheeks (face cheeks and butt cheeks). Now you have a very round bottom thanks to your Mama's wonderful milk. You went from 5 lbs 2 oz to ~16 1/2 lbs of the course of 6 months.

You hit your crying stages around 2 months old and your Mama and Daddy thought that it would never end. I remember how difficult it was with Mastitis and Thrush and now that seems like a distant memory. I'm so glad that I stuck with Breastfeeding - it is working out quite well, now. I remember thinking and understanding why some people give up. It was tough - but, we got through it together.

Then around 3-4 mo old - you "woke up" and started interacting and playing with me more and more. We had such fun days. It was summer time and we got out and met new friends. We went in the stroller around the neighborhood and you loved to look around.

Now it is September and the weather is turning into Fall. You are such an active boy! We love how you are so active and always wanting to do things.

I'm back to work and although things are busy - we are making it all work. Although, our choices on how we spend our time are much different than before you were born. (hard to understand what we did with our time before???)

Well - happy half birthday - my love! You are our sunshine!

Love,

Your Mama & Daddy