Happy 6th Birthday Evan!

I can't believe my Bubby Bear is 6 years old today!! Some thoughts from the time surrounding his birth...

I think we broke temperature records in the Puget Sound area that year. It was hot... I mean like REALLY hot. If I recall, it reached 100F or very close to it the week of Evan's birth. Imagine... huge, swollen, pregnant... and HOT. UGH... I can remember sitting on my birth ball in the family room. The lights in the house were all off and it was dark and I was just sitting on it in front of an open window with a fan on... in my underwear. I could NOT cool off enough and I was miserable.

We got new carpet that week. We knew when Evan would be born and planned ahead so that the carpet would be installed prior to my going to the hospital. They came on a Saturday. We took off and went to a church activity and then took Ethan to a park to play. When we got home, they were nearly done with our carpet installment. I kept looking at the very creamy-colored carpet and thought, "Gee. It looks like the same color we just had ripped up. Hmmmm. I'm SURE we picked a much darker beige. I'm just sure of it." Thankfully, I had saved the swatch the guy at the carpet store had cut from the bolt. So I pulled it out and threw it on the floor. Sure enough... they had installed the WRONG COLOR. My blood just about boiled over.

We called the carpet store and they tried to make this MY FAULT. Um... I don't think so. And unfortunately, he had no idea who he was dealing with. Think about it... a pregnant woman about to burst in the hottest week of the year... um a certain word comes to mind... I won't write it here... but it rhymes with 'witch'... use your imagination. He challenged me to bring the swatch and prove it to him. Um, did I mention that he was dealing with an angry, pregnant woman? So we packed up and headed down there. He took the swatch from me and walked it over to the bolt of carpet... and thankfully, nobody else had cut off any. Because there in the corner, was a piece missing that fit my swatch exactly. That was when I got the first apology. Then they tried to tell me that it would be 2-3 weeks before I could get it installed. Um... BZZZZZZ... wrong answer. Think again. I was not nice. I told him I was having a c-section in two days and I had planned this because I would not be able to leave the house with a newborn, a toddler, and a fresh incision. They needed to have it done before I got home from the hospital... that gave them five days. Guess who got new carpet the very next day? Uh huh... ME!

I toddled off to the hospital on Wednesday morning to welcome our new baby. I had my bag packed, complete with two going home outfits... one of the male variety (actually the same outfit we brought Ethan home in) and one of the female variety (because we didn't know the gender of our baby). Evan was born at 10:44am on Wednesday, June 11, 2003. I remember telling all the operating room staff that I wanted MIKE to be the one to call the gender of the baby. They were so respectful of that. I remember Mike saying "WOO! We have another boy!" And then I cried... and cried and cried... and then I felt weird... I told the very nice anesthesiologist that my mouth was dry... too dry... and then I felt pressure on my chest... and then I felt like I was dying (literally)... I kept saying, with a sandpaper mouth, "Something's not right. I don't feel right." He very kindly said, "I could give you something for anxiety but it would take you out of the moment." I shook my head vigorously "NO!" So he just stayed with me, wiped my tears, and continued to talk me through it. I wish I knew his name. I wish I could thank him.

So all that said.... My Evan turned 6 today! But my poor baby woke up in a foul mood. He's been sick with a cold for several days. This morning, he complained of ear pain. He's never had an ear infection before. By about 9am, he was a vat of tears, just hanging on to the side of his head and crying. I made some garlic oil today and also picked up some homeopathic ear drops. I've been giving this all day and tonight he's a LOT better! YAY! I woke up early this morning and made cupcakes in anticipation of taking them to his classroom today but he of course stayed home. So thankfully I hadn't frosted them yet. I put them all in the freezer and I'll take them out and frost them when he goes back to school. I did make him a birthday cake though and we enjoyed that tonight.

The picture at the top is so cute... as I was making his cake this morning, Evan wanted to lick the beater. Of course I was happy to oblige! (We love cake batter around here... or batter of any kind... cakes, brownies, cookie dough! I wasn't allowed to eat that stuff in my house when I was growing up. We always had to leave the cookie dough for cooked cookies. Not around here. My late Aunty Ana said something to me one time that has always stuck with me [which is amazing since I was pretty young when she died]. She said: "Of COURSE we eat cookie dough. We eat half and bake half. That's the fun of making cookies!" We share the same birthday... so it stands to reason that I side with her philosophy!) Life is short... eat the dough!

Here are some other pictures... the cupcakes I made (which are now safely sealed and in the freezer for next week), my poor Evan bear crashed out on the couch today for his second nap of the day, the Wii game he got (yes, it's rated T... he's played it on the DS for a long time and is quite good at it), and birthday cake!







Evan: Happy birthday my sweet boy!! I love you so much! I'm so proud of you and ALL that you have accomplished in the past year. I can't believe you are in the final week of kindergarten. You are a first grader now! You've learned to read and write in this past year and you're doing math now too! You have brought us so much happiness and joy and we love you to the edge of the galaxy and back!!