THREE

Dear Asher- the picture above was the first look I had of you. When you were born, you were so sick, that I did not even get to see you until you were stabilized and had enough oxygen. Your due date was October 17, but you were born on Sept 20.  After that, I saw you for about 2 minutes.  Long enough to take a photo and for you to get a blessing, then you were taken to a NICU 40 miles from the hospital I was staying.  You were such a dream and a gift, and your birth remains the scariest week of my life. For four days, I was not even sure you were going to live. I was a mess. I don't even like to think about that first week much because it was so hard and so emotional.

I was so blessed that week, as so many people came to check on you- on me- on our family. Eve drove all the way from DC twice that first weekend, and Bria sat silent and still the night I got so sick, before you were born.  While we were dealing with the sick baby, Valerie was taken care of.  Still though, it was scary.  The only thing I could do for you was pray, pump milk and love you.  There were a couple days that we could not even hold you because you had a chest tube.  You actually popped a lung crying so hard.  Your entry into this world was enough to scare me to tears and into fears I did not want to face.



Your birth came 5 months after your baby cousin, Gavin fell asleep and never woke up.  Those wounds were still so fresh when you were born so sick.  I can not adequately describe the pain and fear I had, Asher, but I desperately hoped and prayed for you to be able to stay with us, here on earth.  After many days, suddenly, you opened your eyes and were healed.  We still thank Heavenly Father for that healing, and that you were given to us.

We did finally get you home, at 8 days old, then I had to go right to work.  Leaving a baby never felt as it wrong as it felt when I had to leave you to go to work.  We were lucky though, Dana, Grandma Debby and Grandma Dianne took care of you while I worked so that we could have the things we needed. 


Here are some photos and some thoughts to share with you on the day you turn a great, big, THREE years old.

Everywhere we go, we make friends with strangers enamoured by you.  You draw people to you- not just little old ladies, but children, men, all ages.  People just love you.  They always have and you make us friends with new people every single time we go anywhere.

Dressing you is so fun- but you like it too, and that makes me happy.  I love to put clothes on you that make you look like a little animal, but three is definitely getting at the age where you are too big for that.  Now, I like to dress you like a little grown up.  That makes me happy too.

Here are some things that make you happy:

Your family- you love us all so much and are always trying to get us to love and smile at each other.  You love when daddy comes home, to lie between us, then you take my hand- put it on daddy and say "tik.koo dad.dy!"  You love that so much and laugh like you are being tickled when daddy is laughing.

You love being cuddled.  In fact, you use it against me sometimes if I am working, you wedge your way into my lab and say "hug?" Just so I will pay all attention to you.  You are smart! Who would ever deny such a precious boy a hug.

You like my iPad- in fact, you take it away from me and say, "NO! MY PAD!" which cracks me up.

You love trains and plains and you have memorized a couple books.  You quote movies (sigh) and books and sing songs over and over and over.  Your favorites are "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider," "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "Alice," and "The Wonder Pets."

You love being read to and danced-with, and sang to every day.


When you wake up, you want to be held and you tuck your hands in front of you and between whomever is holding you and yourself.  That is so totally cute.

You love all animals, but especially your cat and all the doggies that walk by our house.

You love to jump on the trampoline and off the sofa- which scares me.

You like french fries, bananas, and whipped cream.  Ice cream is too cold and freaks you out.

Last year, we were worried because you did not talk- you were great at using sign language (and still use it), but did not like to talk, so we put you in speech therapy where your speech improved and now, you talk and talk and talk.  We are hoping the potty becomes something you use soon.  I am tired of the fingerpainting you do with poop whenever that happens.

We love you so much, Asher. You have shown your entire family- and even complete strangers- what it is to love and be happy. You make us all happier and better people and we hope you feel soo sooooo loved on this day. Mommy will try to meet you and daddy for lunch, and play time, then on Saturday, we will have a pirate birthday party for you. We love you Asher the splasher.