Eight Years Old

May 2, 2000 after three days of contractions and being sent home from the hospital twice my water finally broke and I knew that they couldn't send me away again. We got settled in at the hospital around 5am and the nurse told us around 7am that we should have a baby by 9am. 9am came and went without a baby. It is all just a blur of memory--somehow 2 hours of pushing went by. The doctor intervened and at 11:17am Ethan Robert entered the world and I became a mother. I have never been an overly emotional person but something about having this little person enter my life opened up a new aspect to this world. I joy over his successes and ache for his challenges. My baby boy--for he will always be my baby boy.

Eight things about Ethan:
1. He is a protector--his teacher has told me that if anybody in his class is in danger of being picked on he is there to defend and protect his classmate.
2. He loves Zach and Wyatt and enjoys having them hang out with him and his friends.
3. He loves Mallory--he had wanted a baby sister since the moment he found out I was pregnant with Wyatt. It took three and a half years but now we have "our" baby girl.
4. He is competitive--my goodness--he wants to be the fastest, strongest, and best at everything.
5. He is valiant--he has a strong sense of right and wrong and tries really hard to make right choices.
6. He is smart--scary smart. This kid can comprehend just about any mathematical idea that he is presented with.
7. He is friendly--he makes friends easily and always tries to include everyone around him.
8. He is a clown--this kid loves to make people laugh. If he thinks someone is sad he will make funny faces and do anything he can think of to cheer them up.Here are pictures from his birthday party. He has several friends who don't like frosting so we made cupcakes instead of a big cake. Look closely at the picture with the telescope (his gift from us) he is hugging it--he was that excited. Happy Birthday baby boy!