My eldest child turned 7 on Saturday. It doesn't seem possible that the perfect little being I grew inside me is now over 4 feet tall, weighs close to 70 pounds, knows at least 25 breeds of rabbits by sight, can fix breakfast for the whole family by himself, can diagram a female reproductive tract (don't ask), is conversant on the techniques necessary to revive breech birth puppies and goats that aren't breathing at parturition, builds awesome Lego houses, and can tell highly detailed stories about Mr. Ferret and all his friends.
Both Dave and I had friends who were having fertility problems and so when we got married we decided that it might be best if we started trying to have children soon... just in case we couldn't... then we'd still be young enough to adopt if we needed to. Interestingly, we didn't have fertility problems (except possibly an overabundance of fertility) and the first month we tried the little stick developed two hot pink lines before I even got the cap all the way back on the "absorbent tip."
Our anniversary is November 4th. Chris' birthday is November 1st. When we started trying to have a baby I read that the average couple takes about six months to get pregnant. I figured that six months would give me time to: 1) lose weight; 2) finish writing thank you notes for wedding gifts; 3) unpack all the junk in boxes left over from combining two lives; 4) spend a bit of time alone together as a married couple before starting our family. We started trying in January.
On March 6th, 2001 I was somewhere like day 43 of my cycle. If you haven't recieved a thank you note yet for a lovely present you gave us at our wedding... please accept my sincere apologies for being late and know that we love and cherish the towels/crock pot/bakeware/salt and pepper shakers/blanket/placemats/magnetic letters you thoughtfully gave us as we started our life together. My memory and attention span took a hard hit as soon as I got pregnant and I still haven't found the list of presents and thank you cards. To this day it bothers me because I know some people did not get properly thanked. Thank you.
Chris joined our family a couple weeks early (thank God!). Our lives haven't been the same since. His sincere questions, creative mind and hands, sunny smile, and love of books bring joy to our home every day of the year. I can't even imagine how we'd find anything if I didn't have such a competent navigator giving advice and providing directions to local stores, schools, friend's houses, and churches. The Lego horses are also truly awesome. Happy seventh birthday to my oldest son!
3 comments:
Isn't it amazing how fast these last seven years have gone by. Can you believe that our children actually survived this long.
Sometimes Daph looks so old and than at other times she still looks so young. Last night I was tucking her in and she stretched just like she used to as a baby and I got this feeling of nostalgia. I could hardly believe she's almost 7.
Where did the time go?
So fun! We had our first baby when we had been married 15 months. We were shocked, blessed, scared and delighted--all in a very surprised way that we could go from fiances to husband and wife to parents in just a couple of years!
Love your description of that time in your lives and the bio on your big 7 year old!
Blessings!
Thanks so much for your good wishes and thoughts for 4 of 8 today--much appreciated!
Blessings!
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