Birthday

Happy Birthday to me!

I usually don’t do or say anything about my birthday and I don’t for many reasons. I don’t like attention, I don’t like being front and center in my personal life, because with my professional life I have to.  Today is no difference, I walked in and went straight into my office and closed my door. I just didn’t want to deal with my birthday today and I’m not sure why?

Baby B decided that he wanted to say Happy Birthday to me around 2:30 this morning, not my ideal present. But, I did get a lot of time with him this morning and spend a lot of time playing with him and rarely do I get that. And as I get older birthdays, mean less and have taken on a different meaning. Growing up as a kid, it is all about the day and what we can get. Now, it is how little attention that I can put on me and how can I hide in the background for the day.

Today, I’ve been successful in laying low for my Birthday, but I’m ready to head home and grab the boys and cook. But as I told the boys, no gifts, just a hug and a kiss is all that I need, even though they really wanted to buy me a steam engine from Thomas.

So for now, I quietly celebrate my birthday.

 

Read more

I don’t even know where to begin with the post birthday wrap up?

We took the boys to the Aquarium on Friday with their grandparents. I wasn’t sure how that was going to go, but I have to admit, it kept the boys attention for every bit of 3 hours.  They loved walking around and watching the sharks and dolphins swim by and to see their facial expressions was just beyond words. They were truly loving every minute of the day.

Saturday we had a leisure morning and then had a cookout with family and close friends. The weather was perfect and the company was even better. It was great having so many people there to celebrate the boys birthday and more importantly, there was only 2 presents, everyone made donations to the charity that we had selected this year. I think that once again we are going to be able to really help a lot of sick kids, which is awesome.

And then on Sunday, it was Easter. The boys didn’t really grasp the concept, other than they wanted to eat M&Ms for breakfast.  And Baby A loved doing the Easter egg hunts, but Baby B, which isn’t a shock, only wanted to pickup a few eggs and then he wanted to just run.

All in all, it was a great weekend. A long weekend, but a great weekend.

 

Read more

Today, you turn 1, Happy Birthday! It seems like just yesterday I was in the waiting room and the nurse came in to get me to take me back to the OR. And within minutes, you were here. I remember your mom looking at me and saying how much she loved you and all I could think of was how wrinkly you were. But as I sit here today, I can not imagine my life without you.

There were a lot of challenges to get you here, but those are things that I’ll share with you when you get much older. I am just glad that you are here. You have brought a lot of joy to not only myself and your mom, but so many others as well. And I am sure that as you grow older, you will continue to do this as well.

Always remember be true to yourself, family comes first first and that no matter what, you are loved more than you will ever know.

We love you,

Mom & Dad

Read more

My wife and have been discussing the boys birthday party for a while now and I think that we have finally come to a decision on what we are going to do. Something that my wife and I have discussed numerous times, is that we want the boys to be raised that they realize that there are people less fortunate than they are and to appreciate what they have.  So, when we were talking about what we were going to do for the boys party, it was a no brainer, instead of gifts, we wanted donations made to the Children’s Hospital that the boys were born.

We were lucky, that even though the NICU doctors came and talked with my wife and I the night before the boys were born. They were just letting us know that NICU doctors would be in the delivery room, just in case and that the boys might have to spend time in the NICU. We were very lucky, because the doctors were there for about 5 minutes and checked the boys out and said that the boys were healthy enough that they didn’t need to be in the NICU. So many babies are not as fortunate. It was just the start of our many blessings that we have received with this boys.

Our goal is to raise at least $2,000 for the Children’s Hospital, if not more.  The money will help other children and families that are staying at the local hospital and make their stay a little easier. But my wife and I are going to also make a $300 donation in honor of our boys as well. We are doing this so that the boys will always know where they were born and where they spent the first 5 days of their life. I know that our boys will not remember their 1st birthday, but my hope, is that as they grow older and we share with them these stories, that they too will want to help others, others that are not as fortunate as they are are.

So what are you doing for your child’s birthday party? Are they getting gifts? Or are you encouraging them to give to others?

Read more