Today, G turns four.
It's hard to believe that all of this time has come and gone so quickly; to be honest, I don't remember much about when he was a little baby. We were going through a lot then, and we weren't in the best place emotionally or physically.
We were in college, we were struggling to pay bills (gee, that sounds familiar), we were emotionally isolated from our friends because we had no real idea of how to cope properly.
He was always this kind of strange-looking kid, in that he had an odd sense of understanding about him. He always just sort of "got it", even when the rest of us struggled so hard to figure out where we were in life, or what we were doing. He didn't ask the same kind of questions adults did. He came into this world really unhappy about being here, after an admittedly overly long and complicated labor and delivery. But he got here, safely, even if not 24 hours after discharge we were back at the hospital for four days of phototherapy. His bili levels were WAY too high and he lost a lot of weight (just look at the two above pictures; the difference between them is all of two days).
But it was a hiccup, we managed, and we brought him home again.
Granted, we didn't always make the best parenting choices; we know more now than we did then. But G didn't care. He really never has. All he wants is a chance to hang out, relax, be loved. It's all he has ever wanted.
He's always been the kind of kid you want to stare at, too. He was bald for the longest time, so when he finally - finally! - got some hair, it was a miracle in our books.
I think a lot of it is his eyes.
Some of it is his personality.
Some of it is just that, well.. He's awesome.
He has taught us a lot, too - about ourselves, and about life.
We've learned to make faces when all else fails,
We've learned that it's hard to hold still sometimes because life moves much too fast...
We've learned that it's great to laugh when things are going well...
And we've learned that it's okay to cry when something has gone wrong.
We've learned that little kids are surprisingly resilient, and even after experiencing a skull fracture along the sutures of your skull after falling 7+ feet straight down to land on your back on solid concrete, then being strapped to a body board for nine hours with no food, drink, or idea of when you would be let free or what was going on.. Well.. You can survive. It won't be fun, but you can do it.
We've learned about what it means to be a good big brother,
That a first haircut can come after you turn two,
And that your little brother will always be watching so he can do what you do.
We have also learned that doing holiday pictures is absolutely no fun whatsoever.
We have learned that our little brothers will always look up to us, even if we are a little crazy.
We have learned... That life presents interesting opportunities to learn about the opposite gender.
We have learned to hunt eggs...
And to put on our game face.
Best of all, though, we've learned to not flip out... Unless appropriate. ^_~
Happy fourth birthday, my not so little man. Here's to a hundred more.
Love, Mom.
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