August 5 - Doubly Blessed.

                I remember lying on the ultrasound table, watching the screen. I saw words on that screen that made my heart skip a beat – or ten. Due date – August 26.

                August 26. My Heaven-dwelling daughter’s birthday. Rory’s birthday. I wasn’t happy at first. I was weirded out. Panicked, even. What did it mean? What were the odds? Why did it have to be the same day? Was I going to lose this baby, too?

                I was convinced the little one growing in my belly was a girl.  Right up until two days before I had my third baby, I was convinced. Sheldon and I were driving along to the city, when out of the blue I said, “Sheldon, it’s a boy. A boy. We have to come up with a boy name.”

                Sheldon thought I was crazy. But we did; we came up with two boy names we liked.

                I had done something rather silly a few weeks before. I had made it past 30 weeks gestation… and then 34… surpassing my previous pregnancies. Sheldon and I were looking at the calendar, wondering when the baby was coming.

 “Any day but this day is fine by me!” I said, tapping August 5^th. Kadon’s birthday. His party was planned. I wondered if the baby was going to disrupt the party plans.

                August 4^th I was with my sister and her family and I started feeling funny. The irritating thing with my pregnancies is 80% of the time I feel funny, so even though this was my third go around, I still didn`t know what was going on. The labour, as it turned out to be, didn`t hurt. I could feel the contractions, but no pain. Pretty fabulous, really. Of course it would have to be the painless labour that had to be a c-section due to obnoxiously breech baby.

                Once it was decided I was in labour, I looked at the clock. There was no way this baby would be delivered before midnight. My babies were going to share a birthday.

                I was not pleased. All I could think was my kids were going to hate sharing a birthday. However, Kadon didn`t mind. From day one, he has loved on his baby brother. He always wanted to hold him, to be near him, to alert me every time he squeaked his displeasure. Turns out, Eli was Kadon`s favourite birthday present.

                Kadon turned three this year. Eli turned one.

                Kadon has more energy than Sheldon and I combined. He`s fast. He`s loud. He`s smart. He can go from racing around the house making a siren noise, to reading stories alone in his room, to outside in his sandbox, to at the table colouring and tracing letters. He plays hard, learns fast, and sleeps long. He`s a machinery riding sidekick, a quad enthusiast, a helper, an encourager, and he`s two seconds away from a freak out if he`s over-tired.

                He has a huge imagination, loves playing hide-and-seek (or really, “find me!”), going to Mamaw’s house, talking to Papa on the phone, playing on Nana’s iPad, and going for Rhino rides with Papa Bear. Any weird sound he hears is a “bear in bushes! But Daddy save me.” He’s getting braver in social settings. More content to play with kids and even stay at places without Mommy. He can be defiant and snarky, but he’s also apologetic and sweet. He talks out his problems. When sent to his room you can hear him sorting out his frustrations. The dogs are always a listening ear. “Pepper! I wanted to do (insert random thing) and Mommy said NO!”

                He loves babies and kids his own age and older. He has no patience for 1-2 year olds. It’s like he doesn’t know what to do with them. They don’t let him baby them, but they can’t play his games either.  Eli being an exception so far.

                If he could live on buttered bread and freezies, he would. But then suddenly he’ll eat an 8oz steak and ask for more.

                Eli, like his brother, is a Daddy`s boy. In the beginning, he was all mine. He wasn`t all about snoozing and snuggling on the couch. He still isn`t. But now when Daddy walks in the door, it`s a frenzied crawling to get to him to be picked up. And if Daddy waits a nano-second, it`s a heart-broken boohoo fest. I told Sheldon he needs to get a Velcro shirt and Eli can have one too, and Eli would be perfectly content to just be glued to his side.
                Eli is my picky eater. My sweet-smiles. My soft giggles. He`s my more serious one. He`s socially cautious and physically courageous. He`s my climber. Eli thinks that my opening of the dishwasher is his cue to rocket over and “help”.  He’s my horrible traveller. When restrained in his car seat, he often cries until he pukes. If he gags on food, he’ll puke. If he happens to be having a hard time getting to bed, he pukes. Good thing he’s cute.

                Eli has mesmerizing eyes. People have referred to them as “doll’s eyes”. I say they look like marbles. They have flecks of white in them. I think they are a soft pale blue, but then I look again and they seem gray. Whatever they are, they are gorgeous, framed by long, light lashes. He was known for his crazy, wispy, long baby hair. With his new haircut, he looks more like a toddler than a baby. He hyperventilates when he sees a bottle. His soother is his sleepy-time friend. Baths are lame and dogs are fun to harass. Kadon is his best friend and also the one that keeps bumping into him/knocking him down/stealing his toys. But Eli knows Kadon will do anything to make him stop crying, he’ll rescue him from falling situations Eli’s climbing habits get him in, and Kadon will always pick up Eli and haul him over to me when Eli is getting into something he shouldn’t.

                They are best friends. Kadon says, “Eli my brudder. He my friend!”

                Oh God, let it always be so.