Birthday Season

My babies birthday parties have come and gone. Susie turned one on September 24. We celebrated her with a sweet little hot air balloon party. She was picture perfect...smiling sweetly, ferociously attacking her cake, squealing at presents. She's such a peach and she makes my world so much softer and sweeter. A few short weeks later, Thomas turned three. We had our first "kid" party with several of his friends. He had been excited for months about his "bulldozer party" and he was not disappointed. He and his friends played in the dirt, decorated hats and toolboxes, and tore down kid approved party food. I'm totally exhausted from planning parties. I'm glad these two are behind me. But (man, there is always that "but" when you've lost a child) I'd give ANYTHING to be planning my third party for a boy turning five. FIVE. How big is that? I can't even wrap my head around that I should have a child so old. He'll always be two weeks old in my head...forever frozen in that conference room five Decembers ago. I'm thankful that my living children have birthdays close to his. I have a fresh picture in my head of how thankful I am to have Thomas and Susie when Andrew's birthday rolls around. I like that he's included in the birthday season and not left off somewhere by himself.