More on that Birthday

Yesterday was my little man's 4th birthday and we had a very busy day. We have a little tradition at our house of birthday cake for breakfast on your birthday. It is so much fun to sing Happy Birthday first thing in the morning and to open presents. Now that changes when Daddy is not on deployment, we may have cake for breakfast and then open presents when Daddy is home for dinner. Well after the kids dressed and played in the yard, we had to run off some sugar for sure, we headed to Chuck E Cheese for lunch. That is a first for us and it was very calm. Finally it was off to Wal Mart to spend some of that birthday money that everyone had sent.

My Little Man, you are a blessing to this family that we did not even know was missing. When you came into our lives you fit so perfectly. It was like you had been there all along. The day that you were born was scheduled because you were getting so big. Once the pitocin was started at the hospital I had a hard time getting comfortable. The nurses kept me rolling from side to side trying to get me comfortable, but that was not OK with you. Your heartbeat would drop when I moved around causing everyone to be scared, but you were fine.

After two pushes you were out and you did not do much crying. Once you were wrapped up and warm you were fine. The nurses did not like you sleeping so much because they wanted you to eat every three hours. Little did they know that you would always eat exactly when you want to and not a moment earlier. You were a perfect baby who slept a lot and only fussed when you needed us. You would wake up and lay in bed until you were hungry.

Now at 4 years old, you are a serious little guy. You love movies way to much, watching the same one over and over. You do not like loud noises or crowds of people. You make friends for life and seriously get your feeling hurt when someone disappoints you. Little man, you do not take changes very easily. From changing your room around to move to another house or state. You do

not like change.

You play with trains, cars, and dinosaurs. You still carry your blanket around and we do not care one bit about that. You love to cuddle and you have no problem telling on your parents to your grandparents. I am not sure when you will realize that Grammie is not coming to spank me. My favorite saying of your is "that's not what I was expecting."

Happy Birthday my boy. We love you and cannot wait to see how you grow. Thanks for tolerating us.

Love, Mama and Daddy

Happy Birthday


You are my sweet boy

I will right more later, we have got to go have our birthday lunch.

Love you lots, Mama

Happy Birthday - Part 2

Sweet Girl! I hope you know how happy we were to have you in our lives. We know longer felt like a couple with a cat and dog, but we felt like a family. A very tired, clueless but happy family.


The next day, Grammie was scheduled to fly into Baltimore to stay with us for a couple of weeks. She was hoping to be there for the delivery but you beat her here.


The day after you were born (could have been the day of) Walter Reed Army Hospital had a fire and many of the patients were evacuated to Bethesda. So your DaDa did not get his 2 weeks of vacation that he was looking forward to. Instead he worked more than he wanted to assist the hospital in care for more patients that they knew what to do with.


At home, you had begun spitting up a lot, crying a lot, and making me a nervous wreck. I could handle the spitting up, but when your crying turned to screams in the evening I was clueless. The doctor's said you would grow out of the screaming, that if I would relax that you would to. I wanted to smack that doctor.


And then the world stopped spinning. On September 11th, you were 2 weeks and 2 days old. Your Dada was once again whisked off the hospital and then to the Pentagon. He was able to call and tell me to go home with his parents who had driven up just 2 days before when Grammie flew home. We got in Memaw and Poppy's car and headed south, it was a long drive because you did not like being in the car seat. Once we got back to Grammie's house, I finally felt more relaxed. I knew I had someone to help me while I worried about where your DaDa was and what he was dealing with.


After 1 week in the south with your grandparents oohing and aahing, your DaDa came to get us. We had 3 weeks to get our apartment ready to move to our next duty station. Once again we had extra stress on us, but we were beginning to build confidence in ourselves as parents.


My girl, you have been everywhere with us. We have hardly ever gotten babysitters, choosing instead to take you and your brother with us. You have handled many moves, many separations from DaDa, and lost more friends than you can remember from our constant moving, but you handle is all with strength and courage that I am amazed by.


I hope that you had a Happy Birthday. I am sorry that your DaDa is not here, be sure that he was thinking of you on your day. I look forward to many more birthday's celebrated with you.

Happy Birthday - part 1

Wow, you are 7 today. Where did the time go? When I went into labor with you just after midnight we were at home and I had yet to get to sleep. At 9 months it is hard to sleep. So I got up and started walking and the contractions got harder and more painful. Our dog, Sammie, stayed right with me. Ever few minutes she would run from me to the bassinet to see if the baby was there yet. Amazing that she knew what was going on. She would stand on her hind legs to peer into the bassinet.

After a couple of hours walking the floors, stepping over the creaks in the wood, I woke your DaDa up and told him it was time to go. He was tired but ready. So he packed us into the red jeep and off we flew to National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, Maryland.And do you know what they did when I got there.

They sent me home to walk more. I was not a happy camper. So we went home and tried to sleep some more. Dada slept and I did not. We were back at Bethesda just as the shift was changing (the real reason they sent me home) and I got a room. I cannot say enough sweet things about the Filipino nurse that stayed with me the whole time. She knew I was scared and clueless. She encouraged me, hugged me, and helped your Dada pull out the couch so that he could take a nap. I don't know why he was so tired, but he was.

And after an hour and half of pushing, you were finally born. 14:52 pm (2:52 civilian time). Again I was scared to death. Clueless on what I was to do next. Your Dada was even more clueless than I was, so I sent him down to Subway to get me something to eat. That gave me time to think, to look at you, to thank God that you were there with me.

There is more to this story, but I will wait until later. I was just happy you were with me safe and sound.

Happy Birthday my sweet angel.