There Goes My Baby...

If I never had a boy, I would have missed out on the most beautiful kind of love between a Mama and her son. There is nothing like it💙. He’s not only my only boy, he’s also my youngest child; my baby. A dangerous combination... I can not put into words how much I love him even though he drives me mad some days. That unconditional love thing gets him out of trouble every single day. Happy 4th birthday to the little boy who stole my heart. He’s hilarious, he’s moody, he’s loud, he’s handsome, he’s mischievous, he’s messy, he’s loving, he’s hyper, he’s smart, he’s stubborn... and he’s the best grand finale to our family.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy... He's 4. No longer a toddler, but a KID now! A KID!  I've never had just kids... I've always had babies and toddlers mixed in with kids.  And now we have 3 kids.  I'm moving onto the next phase of my life and I think being cognitive of this makes it feel "bigger." Why is this hard for me to accept??  It's just the way life goes, I know this.  But I'm having a harder time with it than I expected.  I didn't even expect to feel sad about it.  But here I am.... really emotional over it!  WHY?!?!! 

So, Sully is like this kid now, right?  And suddenly, I'm listening to him talk on Sunday and he sounds just like a big boy! He tells stories, he speaks in full sentences, he is expressive with his words and I don't know why it all just hit me that night how "old" he suddenly sounded, but it did.  Maybe because I was looking at him with my nostalgic birthday lenses on, but it was really crazy.  Where did my baby go?  That boy that I would sing to in his rocking chair every night.  That baby that wanted to be held 24/7.  That baby that never slept through the night until now- (seriously- since he got tubes in his ears is the first time he's slept through the night!) That baby that was always smiling and ate everything I put in front of him.  He was the best baby (besides not sleeping) but turned into the world's WORST toddler.  The absolute worst.  So why should I be sad that he's not, by definition, a toddler anymore?  I don't know.  I can't understand.  I guess it's just because I love him so much and every day that he grows up is one day closer to the days when he won't want me around and one more day removed from those milky baby breaths, those sweet infant snuggles, those newborn coos.... they're being pushed further and further away:(  There are days I want to pull my hair out and I actually DON'T want him around, but then there are moments where he still crawls up in my lap (like this morning) and tells me he wants to "sluggle" (for snuggle) and then says "you have the best heart" and "I love you, too." Those 2 phrases come out of his mouth daily and I can't get enough of them. 

More about this newly minted 4 year old: He's really opinionated.  He knows what he wants, when he wants it and he will get it one way or another.  He says "tiss" instead of kiss.  "Bizzy" for dizzy. "Sprike" for Sprite. "Walmark" for Walmart. "Phanks" for Thanks. "Yergert" instead of Yogurt. "Sletty" instead of sweaty. "Negos" for Legos. "'Struction site" instead of Construction Site. "X-bator" for excavator.  "'Ment" for Cement. He will ONLY call Piper, "Pi" and Lucy "Sissy."  "Nola bar" for granola bar.  (I'm sure I will remember so many more of his cute little words after this is published, but that's it for now).  He eats cereal without milk.  He LOVES eggs when just a year ago he refused to eat them.  Getting the mail is one of the highlights of his days. He still is just as much of a candy-fiend as ever.  And he's very sensitive to sugar.  Like... whoa.  When he's "high" on sugar, your eyeballs can't even keep up with him while you watch him run around the room. The garbage truck is his FAVORITE and he waves and waves to them the whole way down the street. When the drivers wave back to him he jumps up and down in excitement like it's Christmas.  He still has cars in his hands everywhere we go. He LOVES Legos these days. He would rather look out the window when we drive and observe everything than hold a screen- THANK GOODNESS- and his observations prove just how curious he is. He's so funny. Like, his mannerisms when he's not even trying to be funny kill me.  And then when he actually IS trying to be funny, I die.  He's legit one of the funniest kids on the planet.  He can roll his eyes with the best of 'em. He's just so fun and full of life.  He is Piper's best friend (and worst enemy sometimes!), he has this cute little brother/big sister bond with Lucy.  He's Daddy's biggest fan and best pal, and he's Mommy's ray of sunshine.   He's just my boy.  My baby boyfriend, my cuddle-bug, my little man, my favorite dude;  just someone I adore.  He's someone I knew would be in my life from before I even had Piper.  I dreamed of Sully.  His name was chosen, I knew he was coming someday, and from the second the nurse told me he was a boy, my heart exploded with love and the feeling of "wow, this baby who is sharing my body and sleeping next to my heart is the final piece to our family puzzle. This boy....he's something special."

And with that, I'll end this post.  Because it's gone on long enough.  And I think everyone gets the idea- I'm truly, madly, deeply in love with that kid.  No matter what. 

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A day at the park, lots of new legos, a piñata and dirt cake for this kid made for the most perfect birthday ever.

Learning how to hold up 4 fingers :)

And for the final picture... here are his stats from yesterday's doctor's appointment:
Height: 40 1/4".  49.6%
Weight: 43 lbs.   92%

And NO MORE SHOTS 'TIL HE'S 11! Woo hoo!

Love is in the Air!

As we approached Valentine's Day, the girl's and Shawn had their Annual Daddy/Daughter Valentine's Day dance.  The girl's look forward to this dance ALL year! This year we bought them matching dresses (well, beside the colors) and they looked beyond adorable! I couldn't stop looking at their pictures all night long!  This dance was one of the best.  They stayed longer than usual and Shawn said he was able to slow dance with each of them to a Daddy/Daughter song.  It made him tear up even.  He sure does love his two little princesses!

Then on Thursday Piper had her Valentine's Day party at school.  I was so glad the school split the parties up this year so that I could attend both and not have to pick and choose whose to go to, as Lucy's was on Friday.  They received so. much. candy.  NO ONE sends Valentine's without candy anymore, so with 25 kids per class, that's a lot of goodies!  And of course, my sweet Mom sent them a huge box of candy.  Nana Smidt sent money so that we could buy them some treats so I used that to buy them each a small stuffed animal and the girls' some Valentines Day pens and Sully some skittles and all 3 some balloons.  Nana Raine sent us all some funny Valentine's (they literally made me laugh so hard! My 2 favorites were "I love you more than a Mosquito trying to smile" and "Please be my Valentine so you don't have to be Krabby Parents anymore {with a box of Krabby Patties} hahaha!) And Bruce and Mary sent the kids some souvenir t-shirts from a trip they just went on and it happened to arrive on Valentines Day so they were able to get ANOTHER package in the mail. They were BEYOND spoiled yesterday.  But it was fun.  Lucy spent the night at her BFF Camden's house so if she suffered a sugar crash I wasn't the one who had to deal with it, hahaha! Sully and Piper got to take a jacuzzi bath in Mommy's big bath tub (that's only allowed on special events) and Shawn and I made our annual Sushi dinner.  It's one of my all-time favorite traditions ever.  This year, we suffered a loss though.  After the sushi was all made, we were tidying up the kitchen a bit so before we ate.  While we did that, I went to go lay the big tray of it in our deep freezer to keep it cold while we cleaned (it wouldn't fit in our fridge).  Well, when I shut the door, something under the tray shifted and caused the tray to tilt and most of the sushi rolled right off.  I was so mad! Over and hour of work and a ton of it fell apart!  It was much harder to eat with chopsticks after that, but we managed. And I tried to put the pieces back together and sprinkled cilantro over the really damaged ones to make it look better for a picture, haha.  It was still so much fun. We will do our special Sushi nights forever.  It's my favorite :)

P.S. Sullivan told me he hates Valentine's Day.  So there are not many pictures of him as he was extra cranky!

Today Lucy had her 2nd to last basketball game of the season and she did really good.  She has never made a basket in a game but that doesn't stop her from trying!  I love her cute little self running as hard as she can down that court.  She never stops trying and it makes it that much better.  I absolutely LOVE watching her play.  They get weekly "awards" and hers today was for great sportsmanship and attitude while hustling.  She gets many of the rebounds when they shoot a basket and that helps her team a lot!  That is her specialty :)

Tomorrow I gear up for Sully's 4th birthday.  I can't believe it.  My BABY is 4.... He let me cuddle him when I said goodnight to him a little bit ago and I nearly cried.  He is so hard....but I love him so very much.  I'll wait until after his birthday to write my birthday post about him, but man.... it's hard to wrap my head around this. 4 years old..... my heart can't take it!

P.S. Piper lost another tooth last night and once again pulled it without me knowing! She was eating dinner and bit down hard on her fork on accident.  She went running to the bathroom and saw that her tooth was sticking out of her gums crookedly so she just yanked it out! Yes, it was loose, but not ONCE have I ever been able to watch her pull a tooth and she's now up to 6!  She looks so adorable!! It was exciting to lose it on another holiday :)

And that's a wrap! Off I go to bake a birthday cake!