February 18th, 2009
To My Dear Son,
I find it ironic that as I type this I am sitting in the waiting room of the hospital where you were born. (Your Dad is having surgery to repair a torn ACL in his right knee.) I wanted to write this on your actual birthday, but the fact that I didn’t have a spare moment until now makes it seem almost “meant to be.”
I can not believe you are six years old. It is completely baffling to me that I can remember so clearly the day you were born and how super tiny you were, then look at you now… try to pick you up… and almost strain my back doing so. You are such a loving, sensitive little man. The night before your birthday, as you lay in bed, me tucking you in, I told you the story of the day you were born and you loved it. I may make it a birthday tradition.
You were due on Valentine’s Day. We had a Doctor’s appointment the morning you were born. They told us you weren’t ready to come out yet. We were so ready to meet you that we already had our bags packed and in the trunk of the car just in case. As we were getting ready to leave, Daddy mentioned to the Doctor that I had had contractions the previous Friday evening and that I had mentioned you weren’t moving as much since then. The Doctor had Mommy lay back down. They used a machine to look at you inside Mommy’s belly. Lo and behold, you needed to come out. We were sent nextdoor to the hospital and at 6:03pm, you were taken out of my belly.
Approximately 2 hours later, we were in a hospital room together. I vividly recall holding you in my arms… Daddy standing next to me on my right… Grandma & PawPaw (though we didn’t know that would be his name yet… you ended up giving him that name) at my left. I looked up at Grandma (she’s my Mommy, you know), with tears in my eyes. Because sometimes tears aren’t because you’re sad. Tears can be because you’re so unbelievably happy you cannot control them. I said to my Mommy, “We get to keep him.”
Thank you for letting us keep you. I love you, Buddy. Happy 6th Birthday!
Love, Mommy
Wearing Your Birthday Hat at School
The "Castle Crashers" Cake Mommy Made You
Ice Cream Cake For Your Party
Posted in 2009, William | 1 Comment »
February 13th, 2009
This was about two weeks ago. Chris was out of town & my mom was contemplating taking one or both of the kids to a UT basketball game. I thought she would be nuts to take that on herself, but also thought it sounded fun for Katie to finally get to go.
I decided we should all go. I crammed my butt between their two car seats in the back of my parents car. I thought I would just buy a nose-bleed ticket and either run back & forth trading off kids or hope the seats next to my parents stayed empty. Luckily the seats stayed empty & we all got to sit together.
My Dad is very particular about arrival time, so we were in our seats 30 minutes prior to the game. First we had lunch. Katie had “chips with wet cheese” (aka nachos), William had a hot dog & I had a BBQ turkey sandwich. We sang “The Eyes of Texas” and “The Star Spangled Banner”, then it was show time.
As soon as the game began, it was time to hunt down cotton candy. That’s all I heard about the first half. Darned guy never came down our isle! I finally decided that it was about time for Katie to have to peepee anyway… so I took her upstairs to do that and buy some cotton candy before they ran out, cuz then I’d be in a LOAD of trouble!!! The funny thing is that as soon as we got through the bathroom door, she pulled her pants down and walked over to the stall with her pants around her ankles, showing her bare butt to everyone. She didn’t realize it, but she HAD TO GO!!
Cotton candy in hand, we headed back down to our seats. Just as the kids finished their yummy delights, it was half time. Wow, was this an entertaining half time! Chick-fil-A was doing a promo where the “Eat More Chiken” cows were parachuting from the Erwin Center ceiling! And I mean HUNDREDS of them! So we spent the majority of the time reaching for parachuting cows. We finally got one! Then I realized I have two kids. A nice teenager behind us gave us his. Then just as half time ends, I get beaned in the head by another cow falling from the sky. So we ended up with three. hehehe
The game ended up going into overtime. Which normally I’d be happy we got to that point since we were down by 15 points at one time. But Katie was at her limit. I held her for quite a bit of the overtime period. Then with 1 minute left, she reached under her seat, found her activity bag and started playing her “tv game.” Duh, Mommy. How on earth did I forget I brought activity bags until the last minute of overtime???
Well, we didn’t win. But I doubt Katie noticed and a nice man behind us took a lovely picture of me with my Longhorn Fan kidlets. 
Posted in 2009, Firsts, Katie, Shannon, William | 3 Comments »