It's Christian's Birthday!

Christian turns NINE today! Nine!

It kills me that I can't be with him to celebrate, but I know that he's having a great time with Daddy and Bergen and Grandma Wanda. I got to celebrate with my big boy last weekend when Jay and I took the boys to the amusement park at the Mall of America for a nine-hour extravaganza. Christian even convinced me to go down the flume-like log ride. (Please Mom? For me? For my birthday?) I have the screaming-faced pictures to prove it.

It's cliche to say, but it's hard to believe it's been nine years since Christian and I endured his 30-plus hour labor and delivery. What a trooper he was. (Side note: I know they say that you forget the pain of delivering a child. But they're all lying. And let's not even get into Bergen's, I-know-he's-sticking-halfway-out-of-you-but-wait-until-the-next-contraction-to-push-again birth.) I remember when they laid his slimy, vernix-and-blood covered body on my stomach, how I reached out my arm and patted his side, "Oh baby!" And how I wished they'd clean him up a bit before I held him closer. Who could've guessed what the next nine years would bring? How lucky I am to be his mom? What a wonderful person he would become?

Love that little boy. xoxo, Jen