A birthday mashup

What a year! I cannot believe that it went so fast. Here are some highlights:

Soon this little guy is gonna come see us! I am really excited that today is going to be Dillon's birthday. Dillon took his first breath at 11:53 pm on September 14, 2005. I have watched video of Daniel carrying our son to the waiting room to greet the world, and I see that his feet do not touch the ground. There was a lot of hard work involved in getting him here. His daddy and I have had to learn a lot over the past couple of weeks. The one thing we didn't have to learn was how to love him. That part comes easy. He laughed. And he laughed. Tiny little whimper laughs, complete with a big gummy smile. Guess who is one month old?? Happy day, little guy! Leaving one side of the diaper unattached is about as effective as putting a Taco Bell napkin in Dillon's pajamas and putting him to bed. By morning time, he will be virtually swimming in wet clothes and crib sheets, with the disabled diaper wrapped snuggly around one ankle. Poor baby Dillon has eczema. The doc says it is pretty severe and he will be surprised if we don't have to battle it for a long time. When Dillon wakes up from a nap in his swing, he looks around for a second. He blinks and opens his eyes wide. His chin puckers and his mouth stretches out into an exaggerated "sad face." If he had tears, they would well up, but he doesn't, so they don't. He opens his mouth and lets out a little lamb bleat. We are VERY CAUTIOUSLY clapping our hands because Dillon's eczema seems to have cleared up. He shouts "LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!" for no particular reason, except that he can, and it gets him a little attention in the middle of the night. What can I say? The boy loves his cereal. How is this even possible? Raise your hand if you feel like I just had this baby last week! He is so big - growing and learning so much every day. Most people say he looks like Daniel, but I think he is coming around to his mama's side of the family! Dillon won't crawl. From sitting, he will stretch his little body out to the limit - arms straining, legs bent, hiney off the ground - but no forward movement. Silly boy. This is the first time he tried spaghetti. He tolerated the taste, but then gagged dramatically on the texture of the meat. Then he stuck his finger in a socket and made his hair stand up all over his head. He likes to lick Tux in the mouth. Hm... I am pretty sure I won't be able to turn that into a party that is fun for anyone but him. I don't want him to have a baby-boy mullet, so we are going to visit the barbershop and see if we can trim it up. He is on the move! It took over ten months, but that fat baby has figured out how to crawl. I am going to miss this baby so much during the day! He is my sidekick! He goes everywhere with me. The second he sees me, he takes off toward me, choking back his excitement. He curls up in my arms and puts his head on my shoulder. He kicks his legs to scoot in closer to me, cause we just can't get close enough. One chubby hand is on my neck. The other arm wraps around my shoulder. Just like I have done to him a thousand times before, he lifts his hand and pats me on the back. "It's okay, Momma! I missed you so much but now we are together again and we can play!" That is the sweetest thing to see his little head on a big man pillow, with every limb wrapped around his beloved Dohg.

Happy Birthday to the light of my life. I am so grateful for your sweet smile every day. I pray that you would grow up to be a man of integrity and wisdom, and I pray that God would give me the tools to guide you. This has been a wonderful year, and I am so proud to be your Mama.