Only this handsome, brilliant, funny, 3 1/2-foot-tall, three-year-old fireman could set my life ablaze the way he has.
I am so COMPLETELY thankful to have a this wonderful, healthy little boy in my life. My heart is full and I pray that we are always blessed with his health & laughter.
Praying for Stellan! My heart goes out to all those amazing parents who endure the fight with their sick babies. My thoughts & prayers are with you ~ you are an inspiration.
Yesterday, my sweet little boy turned three-years-old. We had a candy carnival themed birthday party in our backyard with our closest friends & family. It was an awesome gathering of fun & laughter with some of the most wonderful people in Sebastian's life. Only a few couldn't make it due to sickness or because they live in another state ;), so we forgive you guys lol!! Seriously, we had a wonderful time and wish that everyone could have come, but we have special treat bags here for you. {We hope you are feeling better Ben!!}
Sebastian's party was filled with candy - gummies, suckers, powdered, waxed, sweet & tart. We also had popcorn, cotton candy & hot dogs. We put up a screen tent that we used as our concession stand, filled with hot dogs, chips, drinks & cotton candy. There was a giant water slide, minus the water, which kept the kiddies busy for hours. Also, we filled up Sebastian's trampoline with balloons & balls and the older boys were only seen emerging but just a few times. Sebastian's Aunt Stephanie {my sister}, along with her niece, Hannah, helped with tattoos & face painting. A few people were attacked with the pink & blue hair spray, but I had no part in that ;)!! My mom was gently persuaded to dress like a clown, which was hugely hilarious. Sebastian received a turf tractor from us for his birthday and he used to haul kids around the yard all afternoon. He was just slightly territorial with his tractor and only had a meltdown when someone touched it, like, every single time. He was fairly upfront with the fact that he wasn't going to share when he said, "I'm not sharing my birsday present with anyone!"
His birthday cake was amazing! It was so gorgeous & so delicious!! Rowland Stollen bakery rocks. The kiddos loved the cupcakes, or I suppose actually, just the icing, as I'm pretty sure only the icing was tasted. Sebastian adored everyone singing Happy Birthday to him and I loved seeing him blow out his candles.
We had lots of kids running around with painted faces, pink & blue hair, red, yellow & blue mouths and bare, cold, some muddy feet. That was all that I needed to see to know that Sebastian had a wonderful birthday party that everyone enjoyed. I was so glad that we got to share it with so many people that we love.
Below is a slideshow of the all the birthday party pics. Thanks to everyone who helped take pics for me, as you know, I will treasure them always.
At this very minute, you are turning three-years-old. THREE! I just cannot believe that we are already celebrating three amazing, wonderful, perfect years of your life.
It seems as though only yesterday that we were checking into the hospital with so many emotions - anxious, excited, beyond thrilled. You decided to come into this world with just a tad bit of excitement. Your umbilical cord was wrapped around your neck, which caused your heart rate to drop below an acceptable range. An emergency Cesarean section was needed to get you out of distress. I thought my heart would explode as we waited to see you for the first time.
You were perfect. Beautiful! Healthy! PERFECT! At the very moment that my eyes met yours for the first time, a feeling of complete harmony & peacefulness swept over me - all things were as they should be. All the apprehension, all the weariness from the day entirely faded away. You were my only focus. I found the one thing in this world that I knew that I was made to do.
You have quickly grown into such a little man. You are are growing up more quickly than I ever imagined. I am not quite sure if I am prepared to be the Mommy to a THREE-YEAR-OLD. I wanted your baby days to last longer. I have savored every single moment that God has given me with you. Every single kiss, every single breath, every single cuddle.
As bad as I wish I could hold onto those days, the truth is that you are growing up. Your long slender fingers that still wrap around mine are no longer tiny, tight grasps. Your perfect cheekbones are no more hidden behind those chubby baby cheeks and there are no signs of pudgy knees that used to scoot across the living room floor. The baby fine blond peach fuzz atop your gorgeous round face has transformed into a coarser golden reddish blond with amazing texture.
You are no longer that little baby that I rocked & snuggled with so many nights. No more evenings, pacing the floors with a colicky infant. You have outgrown biter biscuits & baths in the sink. But, you have grown into a handsome, facetious, brilliant little boy. You have so much personality. You have so much curiosity about the world. You have a great memory & your learning capacity still astounds & excites me. You have a huge imagination full of excitement & adventure.
You have great compassion for others. You have so much love & so much happiness to spread. You have the biggest, brightest smiles and the warmest hugs. Your "I love you's" make my days the best days. You are tenderhearted. You are sweet & sincere. You are playful & funny. You love to sing & dance. You have your Mommy & Daddy wrapped tightly around that three-year-old finger.
Everyday brings new adventures and more possibilities. Everyday you make me smile. Everyday you amaze me with your words, your thoughts, your questions, your actions. Everyday you make me proud. Everyday I thank God that he picked me to be your MOM. Everyday when I wake up, your face is the first thing that fills my head and the last thing that I see before I fall asleep. Every night after you have drifted off to sleep, I sit beside you and whisper in your ear how much I love you & how proud I am to be your Mommy. I cannot sleep until I have kissed you goodnight.
You have filled my life with more joy, happiness and love that I could have ever imagined. Before you were born, I loved & wanted you so much; but until I held you in my arms, I didn't know how much. Before you, I didn't know that it was possible to love another person so much.
My sweet baby boy, these have been the three greatest years of my life. If it is at all possible, though, for you to slow down on growing up, I would love that. I don't know what life holds in store for you, but I hope and pray everyday that your life is filled with as much happiness as you have brought into mine. I long for all your dreams to be as big as you imagine and that your life fulfills you in every way you desire. I will always love you, Sebastian.
Some of my favorite pics of Sebastian during my FAVORITE time of the year. I love looking back at my most treasured times with him. I miss him being so little, but also very excited about all the things that we have yet to share. {Miss the hair, too;)}
Sebastian & I spent a long day shopping with my friend, Chastity, today. He was in great need of some Fall & Winter clothes and I also needed to pick up a few birthday gifts. Normally, he is a great companion on shopping trips. He can withstand the long drives in the car & being dragged from store to store, but ohhh ohhh ohhh, not today. He showed his little tail today - not listening, sassy mouth, "I want to go home! I want to go home!", the whole works. It was a very long day.
Once we got home we was completely good again. Maybe he thought he'd show out for Chastity, maybe because he was tired or he wasn't feeling well, or maybe it was just his time to be "one of those" kids. Whatever the reason, I almost banned him from future shopping trips for all eternity. It was a close call!?!?
After dinner & bath and some time of front of the tube, I said "bedtime!".
"I don't want to go to bed!" he wailed. I said "Too bad, it's late, it's bedtime."
So, I go and tuck him in, kiss him & say goodnight. He is all curled up in a ball, pouting, not talking to me. I kissed him on the forhead, he wiped it off. I turned on the humidifier and turned out the light. He finally asked if he could watch his Wubzy movie - I said "no, Wubzy is too long. You can only watch Yo Gabba Gabba". He kicked out his legs and moaned "I don't want Yo Gabba Gabba" and I walked out of the room. The next thing I know I hear a loud "thud" in his bedroom. I go back in his room and he already knows his bottom is in a sling.
I asked, "What did you just do?" in my very mean mama voice. He is already on the verge of tears and says, "I frowed my globaby, my froggie & my puppy over dare."
"Why did you throw your toys? That is very mean." I walked across the room and picked them up and laid them on the table beside his bed.
He was already puckered up, his little lip trembling, ready to burst into tears at any second. "I so sorry I'm was mean to yous, Mama!"
"You make Mommy sad when you throw things. It's not nice to try to break your toys."
"I'm sorry I frowed my toys. I'm sorry I was mean to my animals. I hurt them." By now he is crying and I am on the verge.
I asked if he would like his toys back, if he could behave himself and go to sleep. He musters out a yes, so I asked if he wanted all of them or just one.
"I want my froggie baby." I hand him the frog. "I'm so sorry I hurt you froggie." "I want my puppy, too." I hand over the puppy. He hugs him. "I'm so sorry I'm am mean to you puppy." "I want my globaby, too." So, I finally give him his little gloworm baby.
He is just sobbing. I am fighting off tears with everything I have. He sobs, "I hurt my animals. They are hurt."
"No, Sebastian, they are not hurt. They are fine. We just cannot throw our toys anymore. Okay?"
"Okay, Mama! I'm sorry I'm was mean to you Mama. I'm sorry animals. I want to give you a hug (Mama)."
I hugged & kissed him and squeezed him so tight. After he calmed down and started to tuck him in again, he asked if he could watch Yo Gabba Gabba. I said, "no sir you may not." He said "oooookay" in his I'm-sorry-I-shouldn't-have-asked tone. I asked him if he knew why he couldn't watch Yo Gabba Gabba and he replied, "Because I frowed my animals and I hurt them and I'm so sad." I said, "Yes! We don't get mad & throw our things."
I tucked him in after that and he snuggled up with his babies and his blankets. I walked into the living room and fell to pieces.
How amazing to see those emotions in my very soon-to-be three-year-old. He is so emotional & so compassionate and it's extraordinary to me to see him have such feelings of remorse. He knew that what he did was wrong as soon as he had done it. He is no different than any other child and most definitely has his bad moments & temper tantrums, but seeing him when he thought he truly had hurt someone, I knew that we were doing something right.
Today is my birthday. I have fallen upon the last year of my twenties. I thought I would be sad, emotional, not ready to face my thirties, but it's just the opposite. My twenties were great. I married the love of my life and we had the most amazing little boy that could have ever graced this Earth. Every minute with them is a precious gift. Sebastian holds my heart like no other person could. I had Sebastian just short of two weeks after my 26th birthday, which means my twenties will only encompass four years of more extraordinary happiness than I could have ever imagined. Therefore, the only logical outlook for my thirties will be an entire decade of the sweetest gift of all - our son! Every goodnight, every good morning, every I love you, every kiss, every hug makes my life worth growing old for. I love you, Sebastian. I can't wait to spend a hundred more birthdays with you.
“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” - A. A. Milne
I used to define myself by my neatness & organization, a place for everything & everything in it's place. I'm probably the only babysitter that my aunt ever had that cleaned out the refridgerator and closets. It still remains an amazing asset for me at work. I sometimes wonder if I would be able to survive at the job that I have without those skills; however, I have adapted at home. I don't freak out at clutter, I am not constantly running behind Sebastian, picking up & cleaning.
It's wierd how having a child can change your whole perspective.
I look around the house and can see what really characterizes a family. The things that I would use to describe as clutter or messy, now I just see as home. Pieces of our lives strewn here & there, happy memories, funny stories, just an amazing day.
Sebastian's bedroom is a pile of toys. His car hauler is filled with medical supplies & used as an ambulance. His favorite "Fire Engine" book is still laying in the bedroom floor from naptime. It doesn't matter how messy & destroyed his bedroom is, at the end of the day, he knows where to find his favorite books, movies & toys. His Froggie & his watch are still laying in the bed where he fell asleep with them today.
His favorite remote-controlled "tractor truck", as he calls it, was abandoned half in his bedroom doorway & half in the hallway, after a long day of working in the crops, "spraying the cotton" and "picking beans".
The oven door to his kitchen is still open and pots & pans, lids & spoons, still found throughout the living room. He cooked an amazing snack today of mashed potatoes and BBQ sandwiches, with no spicy sauce.
His soft ball & bat were discarded where he stood after a wonderful practice with Daddy. He has a great left arm and looks like we'll have a lefty batter, too!
One of his favorite blue blankies is laying on the couch, where I snuggled with him as he awoke from his afternoon nap. Also, tucked behind the couch cushions is his microphone he used to sing me Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, a cappella, which was my favorite part of the day ;)
His Fisher-Price Learning Chair {which doubles as his time-out chair}, was sitting in the middle of the floor where Sebastian decided he wanted to watch NickJr. in the kitchen. He has been singing along to the ABC Song, phenomenally.
His jacket & socks are tossed here & there from bundling up until Daddy could get the furnace lit this very chilly Fall morning.
There are cupcake wrappers from Mommy's birthday cupcakes we made today, pillows tossed from courageous adventures, trucks left from a long day of exploring, peas scattered all over the kitchen table from a huge 3 helpings of his favorite vegetable that will make strong as Daddy.
I love seeing that our house is "lived in", that our house is a home. I love seeing that Sebastian gets enjoyment out of his toys & has an awesome imagination. I love knowing that I can tell you a story with every piece of "clutter" that is found in our home. It is so gratifying to know that Sebastian is having a childhood filled with adventures and fun and so much love.
**And just for the record, we don't let Sebastian destroy the house. He doesn't eat & drink all over the house, makes spills or messes. He doesn't get to run crazy through the house & break or damage things. He goes wild with his toys and loves to play with the pillows & cushions from the couch. But, at the end of the day, he gets to pick up all the messes, the toys and the details that went undone all day, get put back where we found them so that we can start all over again tomorrow. Although we want Sebastian to have fun & play to his heart's content, we also want him to have respect for his home, his toys & have some responsibilities to those things. He is an amazing little helper around here and I am so proud of him. That is another post for another day, but I just thought I would throw that in. ;)
We just come home from taking the most beautiful afternoon walk. It is the most amazing feeling being with the two guys that I love most in this world. I can't find the words...
I have been so neglectful of my blogging duties - I think I've officially fell into a weekly update as opposed to my once daily posts. OH WELL! It's my blog & I'll post when I want to. I find that the extra time away from the world wide web has really help me figure out what's important in my life. My family & my friends that I adore, that I love, that love me & all the crazy, quirky things about me. Life is wonderful! Life is amazing! Life is sooo short!! I have the greatest people in my life ~ I love you all!
We are loving Fall. It's the most wonderful time of the year. I love the leaves changing & the cotton growing. I don't have the words to express how very, very excited I am about this time of year. I am looking forward to all the great things Southeast Missouri offers this time of year.
I can't wait to take him again. There are several pumpkin patch/corn maze places around this area, so we may try to make a stop at all of them this year. Sebastian definitely gets the Fall fever from his Momma!
Hopefully, more to come soon!~
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