Look who's 3!

3 years ago I had no idea what an adventure I was in for when I gave birth to little Rollin. Boys were new territory.

Fast forward to today and I truly cannot imagine our lives without this little guy in them. Rollin certainly has my heart wrapped up in the palm of his chubby little hand. I love my sweet boy more than I ever could have imagined.

He has brought so much joy and life to our family and I feel like we have bonded so deeply from the very beginning. There is definitely a unique bond between mothers and sons and I'm so grateful I have been able to experience it.

Even though a little brother will be here quite soon, Rollin is still very much my baby boy.

He insists he is a big boy on some days and a little boy on others.He still needs to cuddle, "mooch", and sniff mommy several times throughout the day.

He adores and looks up to his Dad which is such a wonderful thing to behold. He watches Zig closely and loves to work alongside him. He loves a job or task.

His enthusiasm for life, his sense of humor, sweetness, and his gift of self-expression are the traits I will remember most from this age. We've had a wonderful year and I absolutely love being a mother to him. He expresses his love so freely and frequently, whenever the thought comes to mind. He melts my heart.

I am happy about this new baby, and we are all looking very forward to meeting him, but I have to be honest, I feel quite melancholy inside when I think about how things will change, especially as it relates to Rollin. I am savoring these last couple of months and I know he'll be a wonderful big brother when it's time for him to hand over the title of "baby boy" to a new little fellow.



Zig is in New York this week so we are celebrating with the family later this weekend. After getting calls from all his little girl cousins, we went on a birthday bike ride on the river trail, and it must be noted that there was sun. Unfortunately there was also some youth minister preacher gentleman who would not leave me alone and talked to me for at least half an hour as I followed the kids on bikes. After we sent him on his way, kindly, I was able to enjoy just watching the kids and the beauty around me.

After school we went to dinner and Rollin had a big birthday sundae which we all tried to steal from him! During the meal he kept saying "hi," waving, and turning around to look at the woman sitting in the booth next to us. He must have really charmed her because when it came time to pay, we were so surprised to learn that someone had taken care of our bill. It was the woman Rollin had been talking to and our waitress told us once she realized it was his birthday, she wanted to do something special. The girls were really touched by her generosity, as was I. Because I had not picked a gift for Rollin yet (I put Zig in charge of that), we went to the toy store and let Rollin pick out whatever he wanted. He chose more dinosaurs because the enormous flock (is that what you call it?) we currently have is apparently insufficient. He also got a little shark and a coloring book and was just so pleased to be able to choose his own gifts. We came home and watched Annie and we all went to bed much too late.

Happy Birthday Rollin!