My husband and I have such a hard time deciding what to do for birthdays. I am more of a practical parent. My question is always what does HE (our son) want to do? I ask the obvious. What type of cake do you want and what do you want to do on your special day. Colin specifically wanted to hit the ticket blaster at Chuck e Cheese and eat chocolate cake. Thats it! Well that never sits right with my husband. He has grandiose ideas flying around for every single one of our kids. Something to do with re-living his own childhood. I let him because whats the harm right?
So instead of ol Chuckie we found ourselves at one of our favorite lunch spots and a water park. We finished the celebration at the cottage late in the evening with neighbors singing happy birthday while he blew his candles out. When asked what he thought of the day he said it was the best day of his life. So our job is done.
Colins birthday is always thought provoking for me. Not that all the births of all our children aren’t, but Colins was unique. It was the first baby of 5 that the epidural did not work correctly (ouch!) and he was the first of 5 children to be born with a full head of fluffy hair. At the time I thought he just might be the last one. I was in the best shape of my life while carrying him and he was just easy.
When we decided to have just one more child to round our 6 pack out I knew that Colin would be an excellent big brother. A couple months after I found out we were expecting I found out that our 6th and final child would be coming with an extra chromosome. We were devastated but hopeful. We knew there was a bigger picture and we began searching for it but I remember holding Colin who still took a bottle at the time and rocking him in the chair in his room. I rocked him to sleep every night and as that baby was growing in my belly I remember saying to myself. Enjoy this. This is it for the typical American family. I would cry and rock him a little longer questioning what I done. I had 5 healthy boys, why did I push my luck?
Well here we are 5 years away from those thoughts and I know why. Our family needed that 6th and final baby. We needed the exclamation point to symbolize the end of one chapter as we entered into a the new chapter of raising children. Colin needed his sister to look after, to grow with and to push him. He needed a partner just like everyone else. They shared a room for quite a few years and now he has moved in with his brothers but he checks on her and she can never get more then a step away without him guiding her back.
My fluffy haired baby has grown into a child who understands responsibility a whole lot more then I ever did at that age. So proud of my youngest boy and it felt good to celebrate him this weekend.
PS I am loving all the response I am getting on the Back to School post. I am really proud of the images as well as the models that came together and proved that when given the opportunity all kids look fantastic together. If you have not seen the post check it out here.
Please do share it with your friends and family. The more we talk about the need for a more integrated media and faster things change.
OX Katie
