To our Small Son

Every once in awhile, I look at him and think...how did this happen?
how did you go from being our sweet, tiny little bundle of surprise
to being our high-energy, train-loving, talking-a-mile-a-minute, people-loving little BOY?
Because you are not a baby any longer.
I can't, in good conscience, even call you a toddler...not that you ever really toddled. More like skipped straight to flat out running.
BUT.
I wouldn't have kept you a baby for the world
for if I had, I would have missed out on this.
The sweet little smooches on my cheek
The little arms around my neck
The "snuggle me, Mama."
The (oh-so-serious!) discussions about trains and tracks and coupling rods and tenders and shunting cars and "bein' an engineer when I grow big...you can drive the diesels, Mama. I'll drive the BIIIIG steamies!" (don't know all those words? You must not have a train-obsessed boy living in your house...)
I would've missed the stubborn fits and "I don't HAVE to!"s...which I may or may not have been happy about. Ask me in a few years...
But I would've missed the sheer joy on your face as you run or climb or swim
your sweetness with your baby sister (although "gentle" doesn't seem, somehow, to have translated...in French OR English)
your help baking cookies
and building track
and the sweet times in the evenings when you snuggle up in my lap
and we read story
after story.
Although I miss your sweet baby face
I love your inquisitive little-boy face
even more
and each day with you in our lives is a blessing
Small Son, your Daddy and I love you very, very much...
We didn't know it. But God knew
we needed you in our lives.
You made me a Mama, and him a Daddy
and taught(teach!) us so much about God
and his grace towards us
everyday as we learn to parent you.
Happy 3rd birthday, Pax William...October 2nd, 2010.
Sorry about all the pictures...I couldn't choose!!