Golden Birthday Letter

Dear James,

Today you turned 3 years old! You let me sing, "Happy Birthday to you many times, but the first time you laid back down in your bed and covered your face with your pillow. You were in awe of the Blaze and the Monster Machine decorations and the candle in your donuts. While I knew that we would have to wait until tomorrow to open presents, I was glad that I could make your day special at breakfast! You even got serenaded by Daniel's whole kindergarten class!

Each birthday, I can't help but reflect back on your life. I know you're only 3, but it wasn't long ago that I heard your first cries as they whisked you off to clean you up and weigh and measure you. Then a nurse laid you on my chest. You were perfect. I studied you as much as I could and snuggled with you until we got moved and they took you to the NICU. I spent the next 5 days recovering, while walking the floors of the hospital every 3 hours or so to come up and hold you and feed you.

Now, here we are 3 years later. You are an amazing little boy. You adore your big brother and make sure everyone knows that he is YOUR "brudder"! Of course, the older you get the more fights you get into too. It drives me crazy, and yet when I sit back and think, it's how my sisters and I were too. I pray that your love of each other always wins and that you will be lifelong friends.

You have always been fairly good natured. Recently, you've started to realize that you can have more independence and I'm slowly trying to give you more, while also having to deal with tantrums when I won't let you do something dangerous like run with scissors or stick your hand in the hot oven.

You LOVE books, which makes me so happy! You have so many memorized. Your favorites are Pete the Cat, The Pigeon books, The Snowy Day and Llama Llama books. You went as Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons for Halloween, and were the coolest cat in town.

You still sleep with your lovey (burp rags) as you have since you were only 4 or 5 months old. You don't carry them around everywhere like Linus anymore though. Only bedtime. You also have this little blue bunny pillow you got from Mimi and Pa T. at Easter and you HAVE to have it to sleep too. Last month we accidentally left it at a hotel and I had to backtrack to get it for you because I knew you would have been heartbroken. (I would've been too!)

You love going to church...even though sometimes you throw fits about it. You have lots of little friends and teachers who love you! You love to sing all of the songs you learn at church.

You are a horribly picky eater and it drives me insane to try to figure out what to feed you.

 You love bubble baths, but you call them "bubble taffs" and it's just too cute to correct.

You always want to drive around after we take Daniel to school and for some reason you've conned me into many drives around the area. We drive through parks, by the lake and sometimes even cruise a country road or two. It's funny because before I got married, I used to go for drives ALL the time. There was no purpose other than drive, think and sing at the top of my lungs. So, doing this with you really takes me back. I don't get much thinking done, but we sing together. You know so many of the current Christian songs and what you can't see is me sitting in the front with a huge smile on my face listening to you belt out praises to God.

One of my favorite things that you say right now is when something isn't working or you can't figure something out, you yell, "Mommy! Something not quite right!"

On the other hand, one of my least favorite things that you say lately, is "No. No. No. You be quiet. Stop talking!" Such a sassy little man. You're lucky you're so cute!

Other random things you currently love or are obsessed are:

• the Geico gecko
• the Gateway Arch
• the Cardinals
• mini chocolate donuts
• the song Blue by Eiffel 65
• Blaze and the Monster Machines
• Pocks (Spock) and the Enterprise   (Daddy is watching Star Trek)

Not to mention many other things that I've forgotten about right now.

I wish I could explain to you just how much I love you. You may drive me right off the deep end some days, but my love for you will never ever go away. You are smart, amazing and hilarious. You make me laugh every single day. I can't wait to see where life takes you and I pray that God will always be a big part of your life.

Happy Golden Birthday, James Michael.

Love,
Mommy