Happy Birthday Pumpkin!

How could you not fall in love with that face?

    February 22nd is my son’s seventh birthday and I am at a complete loss as to where the last seven years have gone.  I can still remember the day he was born like it was yesterday.  Every single day since his birth has been filled with joy and the warmth of his love.

    We never really knew whether we wanted to have a second child or not.  Our older son’s birth had already made us feel complete and we weren’t really in a rush to have another baby.  It was already a lot of work managing two full-time careers between the two of us, parenting, and running a home.  I guess we just figured that, if it was meant to be, it would happen.

His smile melts my heart!

    On my older son’s second birthday, we had a birthday party at our house and hosted a barbecue  for all our close friends and family.  During the party, my husband’s grandfather suffered a massive heart attack and died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

    We were all devastated and, that night, in our grief we decided that we had to have another child because we didn’t want our older son to be alone should anything happen to us.  Shortly thereafter, our baby was conceived and we couldn’t be happier.  Our family of three would become a family of four and just be completely perfect.

Love his curly hair!

    It wasn’t an easy pregnancy with bouts of morning sickness and gestational diabetes but I pulled through it counting down the days until I would meet my new son.  Evidently, he couldn’t wait either because I started having contractions at 34 weeks and had to go in numerous times per week to get IV fluids at the hospital in order to keep the contractions at bay.

    Finally, on February 21st I was admitted for the last time and the doctor made the decision to schedule my C-Section for the following day due to concerns about my blood pressure spiking.  That morning, at precisely 10:14 a.m. our Ethan was born with a full head of jet black hair and I couldn’t help thinking that he looked a lot like a Papoose.  He was just perfect and our family was complete.

My favorite photo of him…

    Since he was born, he has been very close to me.  He is a very affectionate and sweet child and my heart bursts with love whenever we are together.  I’ve learned so many things about parenting through being his mother.  He has taught me to have more patience since he is very precocious and always into everything.  The love that he has for his older brother and vice versa reminds me every day that my husband and I made the right decision by choosing to have two kids.

    Before having him, I never imagined that I could love two people as much as I love him and my older son.  Nobody has ever loved me either the way that they love me so unconditionally and it feels good.  I am a better person, woman, and parent for having him and words cannot even begin to express how much I love and cherish him.

Look who is a big boy now!

    So, without further ado,  I want to wish my Pumpkin a very happy seventh birthday!  May this be just the beginning of a lifetime of happy birthdays filled with everything good that life has to offer.  Hopefully, God will bless me and allow me to watch him grow into the wonderful man that I know he will be.

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