People I love: My Kiddo

We celebrated Kiddo's birthday this past week. I can't believe how big he is now. His being old enough to hunt with a real gun was hard enough to swallow, but knowing he is just a few years shy of being a teenager just makes me wish I had cherished those baby and toddler moments more. I look at him today and see a mature, bright, little-boy-almost-young-man who is growing up before my eyes. I pray that I can look past the temper tantrums that still occur, the rebellious streak he has during math, and the a-little-too-often smart remarks and see that he is truly becoming a young man who loves Jesus and wants to please Him. I hope Sound Man and I can teach him to trust Him more and more as he gets older.

The older I get, the more I'm convinced that my pregnancy and his birth was a miracle. I hope in the coming years I will continue to see his life as the miracle God wanted for my husband and me.

Since I'm in a nostalgic mood, here are some pictures from when he was a baby, when he turned 4, and this past November when he got that buck.

Is this not the sweetest picture ever? Look at that little round head! Aaaaahhh! He had a teeny tiny scratch on his little head from where his mother didn't clip his fingernails enough. I'm such a bad Momma. Remind me to tell you about the bassinet incident. Or maybe not. Anyway, these were his first pictures taken, if you don't count the hospital ones. Look at his little moccasins! Those were his first shoes and I still have them. Okay, enough of all this "look at" stuff. I'm gonna start crying.

This picture just cracks me up. He's 8 flippin' weeks old, people! He's not supposed to be able to hold a bottle, much less a book! How she got him to pose like this is still beyond me. His legs are crossed, he's holding that book like he's been reading all his life, he's concentrated on the page. I think it's SO appropriate, though, that I show this because now, at 9 years old, the kid can almost out read me. I mean, right now he's reading Another Season by former Alabama Coach Gene Stallings. For the second time. His favorite book is The Tale of Despereaux, which, if you've watched t.v. any for the past couple of weeks, you know is coming out in theaters Friday. Which, on Saturday, we will all three be going to see. After which, we will be going to Kiddo's favorite restaurant in all the world, Outback Steakhouse. Where he will order the most splendid Mac-a-Roo and Cheese. Have you tasted it? No wonder it's his favorite!

Okay, got off subject there for a minute. Here he is with his best friend in the whole world, C.D. He told me just the other day that instead of his real name, he was going to start calling him C.D, which are his first and middle initials. Okay by me. C.D. looks like he's whispering conspiratorially (I think I just made that word up) in Kiddo's ear. I love this picture, even though J.W. (yes, that's really what he goes by) has his head all up in it. The kids just look like they're having so much fun. I guess they were since they were celebrating their 4th birthdays together. See, C.D. was born just 9 1/2 hours after Kiddo was, only the next morning. So Kiddo's birthday is one day, C.D.'s is the next. They have been in nursery together since they were born. So up until the past couple of years, we did their birthdays together. Then it just got to be so much that we kind of slacked up. But the boys are okay with that. It's not like they don't get to see each other. We all go to church together and their family is in our small group. So, yeah, they get plenty of Kiddo/C.D. time.

I can't believe my baby is going to be in double digits this time next year. He's NINE people! Wheeeeeere did the time goooooo???? I rack my brain trying to remember it all, but I just can't. I guess that's why God allowed someone to invent the camcorder. I'm very thankful for that thing!

Okay, thanks for allowing me to wax nostalgic today. I could have put SO many more pictures on here, but I thought I'd spare you. For now.