Birthday Boy

Gavin is officially 9! That means in less than a year he will turn 10...and then 11-- Gasp! HOW IS TIME GOING SO FAST???

The day started early--6:15am to be exact. Gavin and Jenna were both up to check out the streamer tent....which I FAILED to do properly because I forgot to do his bedroom doorway too--since when was that part of the deal? I also didn't have a present for him to open first thing. He made some comment about how his birthday was starting off "boring." Thinking back, I think I did do that for him and Jenna last year--WHAT possessed me to start that tradition? After this last week of birthdays, I think I may just start a new tradition next year and let them open ALL the presents the second they wake up and just get it over with!!

I think the best part of G's day was Brent going to eat lunch with him at school. They sat with the whole class and Brent made sure Gavin was the coolest kid in the lunchroom. He is so proud of his dad!

After school Gavin was so fixated on opening presents he couldn't function. We would have just opened them then, but we were missing Jenna who was still at Paiges. I thought Gavin was going to loooooose it!---so I caved and let him open just one present: a motorized plane. He was appeased for about one second before it BROKE on the first toss! Boo! It was a cheap filler present anyway. Cousin James showed up just in the nick of time with a cool Lego set for him to put together.

We decided to go miniature golfing and then come home and do dinner and presents. Gavin wasn't taking "Wait" for an answer any longer--he grabbed all his presents and loaded them into the car. We made him wait until we at least pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car, but he couldn't physically wait one second longer! This years presents: cool rockets to build and then blast off, an Erector set and...COINS! Gavin has been wanting a Sacajawea dollar for the longest time, but I think the big hit of the night was the sack of 50 random coins from all over the world. WHY didn't I just give him those this morning? We could have saved $50 and a lot of agony for both of us. :)

Happy Birthday G-Man! You add a whole level of sweet to our family. Thanks for being a great big brother and the best 9 year old son I could ever ask for. I LOVE YOU!

**A cute p.s. side story: After I finished this post and went to bed last night, Gavin came into my room at about 3:00a.m. He couldn't sleep and wanted to sleep in my bed. I, of course, started to groan because that meant I would be kicked and my blankets would be pulled off and my good sleep night would end right there at 3:00a.m. Then, suddenly, this memory flashed through my head and my heart melted. I pulled him up on to the bed and got him settled in his blankets and then told him this story about this exact moment 9 years ago. Ready for another story? :)

***I was induced at 11:00a.m. on a Saturday. I had gone in for a quick blood pressure check, but it was so high they did some testing and said I had Toxemia pretty bad and they would be taking Gavin out right now for both of our safety. I was six weeks early, and it was my first baby, so I thought that this was something comparable to an early Christmas present!

Because of the Toxemia, they had to start me on this crappy medicine that made me feel like I was severely drugged. It was absolutely terrible--everything was in a long slow motion slur. They had to put this stupid oxygen up my nose that dried out my nose, mouth and eyes. To top it off, NOTHING was progressing! My body was just not ready to give birth yet. After a L O N G 18 hours of nothing--including no sleep because of this medicine, they determined that Gavin's blood pressure was dropping to a scary rate and they needed to just get him out as fast as they could. He was finally born at 6:05a.m. and taken away quickly for a little special attention to get his breathing stronger.

That day I had lots of visitors and all that fun stuff. I was riding on an adrenaline high, like every woman does after having a baby, and I didn't take any opportunity to catch a nap. They were weaning me off this crappy medicine that made me feel drugged, but said it would take at least 24 hours so I still felt awful. By that night, I was EXHAUSTED. I really needed some sleep and asked the nurses to keep Gavin in the nursery overnight (well, from 11pm until 5am or so) so I could catch up on some sleep.

At exactly 3:00a.m the nurse came into my room with a screaming baby. She said, "Sorry to wake you because I know you needed some sleep, but Gavin has been screaming for the last couple of hours and will not calm down. We think he wants his mom." She handed him to me and he immediately started to calm down. Sure enough, he just wanted his mom. We spent the next hour or so just staring at each other. His HUMONGOUS dark eyes peering out of that mummy wrap. He looked just like a scrawny little baby bird without any feathers and I was totally in love. Fun memory that I had kinda forgotten--fun to tell it to Gavin at almost that exact moment 9 years later!