4 Years

I have already shared Jack's Birth Story, and as much as I think I'm entitled to tell it OVER and OVER again, I'll spare you.

I was thinking last night that not only was Jack born 4 years ago, but Chuck and my new roles as parents were born as well. How different our lives have become. It's hard to remember how we spent all of that free time, what it was like to eat a meal without getting up five times to retrieve some portion of a kid's meal, how free our arms must have felt to not be carrying a bowling ball, oops, child with us all the time. But moreover, it's hard to remember back to a time when we didn't have these awesome little people in our lives.

Four years ago today we were born into parenting. And right away we were pretty darn good at it (in my humble opinion). In the hospital I dubbed Jack "quizzical" and I think anyone who knows him now would say he's still that way. Chuck figured out within a day how to best soothe the fussy baby, and although my memory is a bit foggy, I believe the bounce-the-child-until-they-somehow-fall-asleep method was born there too. Within an hour I was feeding and nourishing another human being.

Some parenting skills have needed more fine-tuning. It took us two full years (and a lock on our door) to get Jack to sleep in his own bed. We went through several versions of time-outs before we figured out what worked for Jack. We learned the hard way not to share details of things until they are set in stone, that you should never turn your back on a toddler with blue chalk, and that it's okay to just leave the room when we're frustrated. We learned how to make everything seem like it was Jack's choice from the beginning. We learned, or rather reinforced an existing belief, that laughter can solve almost anything, and that we need to take every chance to tell him how proud we are of him, and how much we love him.

So today I say Happy Birthday to my sweet boy, and Happy Birthday to Chuck and me as well. I hope we continue to learn from and love one another for a VERY long time.