Happy Birthday, Little One!

Today was a good day. I made a birthday cake, we went to church, we ate out twice, the children laughed all afternoon. Trystan refused to nap, probably because he had a very short one in the car between church and lunch. He's not good at resuming interrupted naps. But he got some wonderfully giggly Grandma and Grandpa time while his twin cousins (and their mommy) were napping on the big bed in his room.

Today was all about Thomas the Train. My son loves anything with wheels, and got a lovely little wooden Thomas train set from Santa. He's become a bit obsessed. Yes, we encourage him. If you've ever seen the Thomas tv show, and compared it to something high-pitched like Dora, you'd probably understand why. But he is welcome to enjoy other things, and yet he obsesses over his "choo-choo" jammies and his "choo-choo" toothpaste. After this afternoon's unwrapping fest, he now has several miles of wooden tracks (and a bridge!) and at least 500 more train cars to connect together. And new Thomas sheets to fit his toddler bed (which is still a crib for the moment). And a giant stuffed Thomas the Train pillow. And books, books, books. The kid's in heaven.

I even made him a Thomas the Train cake, as best I could. I don't know that the photos do it justice, which is probably a good thing. I'm no professional cake decorator :) The cake pan is not Thomas, just a train car "muffin" pan, but I did my best with icing and colored sugar. About halfway through the decorating, I was ready to chuck the whole thing and run to the grocery store for a real cake. And then Trystan saw what I was doing and started cooing "Ooohh! Wow!" at me every time I'd pick up a train car to add a new color. That made the whole thing worthwhile. Good thing we photographed it, because it was very tasty :) Unfortunately, he was a little sad later that it disappeared from the table (don't think he understood that when he was eating "Thomas" that the choo choo set was sliding down his gullet).

Today has been a bit hard for me. We plugged a memory card full of 4.5 years of photos into our Wii and let it cycle through them all afternoon. Watching Charlotte's baby photos, and toddler photos, and the few with my bulging Trystan belly make me sad for the days of Charlotte as the round, giggly 2-year old. And then a scanned version of one of Trystan's first ultrasound photos flashed on the screen. The ultrasound that told us that all was not well with the new baby. And then came the photos of Trystan in the NICU, GI tube taped to his face and PIC(?) line taped to his head. And the one of Charlotte with her baby brother, both cuddled on their daddy's lap, at home for the first time together on Easter Sunday that year.

I have a beautiful, smart, busy, mischevious, active, dexterous, fun, and currently quite healthy 2 year old boy. Not quite a baby, not quite a kid. He jabbers constantly, though his pronunciation sucks right now :) This week, he's been saying "cupcake" loud and clear. He likes to use the potty--but only when we're away from the house. He hits people when he gets frustrated (a habit we're working hard at breaking), and he loves to snuggle, and to give hugs when he's happy. His very kissable belly has two scars--one so faint you can hardly see it, the other large and ugly, though fading. I know within the next year or two we'll have to add a third, for his heart.

Tonight, I'm happy and proud to be his mamma. And maybe a little teary, too.