9 years ago today

I was a few miles south at OSU in labor.  After having my first kid by c-section I had this bright idea that I wanted to have a “natural” childbirth with no meds.  Well three days later, he still wasn’t here.  By 10:30pm I was so exhausted, one minute thinking I had already had the baby, one minute wondering when I could just lay down and go to sleep.  At that point we threw in the towel and decided to go for another c-section and the baby that they thought was a modest 7lbs at most came out close to 10.  The room was full of med students all laughing when the doctor said, “get that baby on the scale!”.  The next day one of the young male students came to see me and said, “you are the one everyone was talking about- that had a huge baby that we all thought was going to be small.”

Blake was such a fun brown roly-poly baby.  He nursed so much I was eating gobs of ice cream all the time just to keep up.  And even though he is was born a toddler, I carried him everywhere we went.  He never wanted to sit in a high chair, he preferred a lap.  He didn’t like the stroller, he preferred a sling.  Carseats made him cry every time.  When we tried preschool at 3, he hated it.  So we waited until he was four and he loved it.  He never crawled, just sat until he was 13 months and then got up and ran.

It’s not easy being stuck in the middle as he often reminds us.  The older brother is mean to him and the younger brother drives him crazy.

We always tell him that it makes him special.

Not sure he buys it though.

He likes to hang out in his underwear.

He’s very messy.

He doesn’t listen well, but he is very sweet.  And pretty darn cute.

I love this kid fiercely-

an older picture that I love- at Oval Beach on Lake Michigan.  Seriously one of the best beaches.

Happy Birthday Big Guy!

I love you.