It's my son, Maxwell's, 10th birthday today.

Where does the time go?

Around our house, I have a love/hate relationship with birthdays.  Don't get me wrong, I do love them.  We celebrate like crazy around here and it's good, good times.  But it's also a reminder that time is fleeting and that my babies aren't going to stay young forever.  To those of you who don't know me well, I am a very emotional person.  So, usually the day before and maybe even the day of - you might catch me crying myself to sleep.  Silly, isn't it?  The only good thing I can say about that is, I guess it is a true testament to how much I love my kids.  Because really, I don't want to cry over their birthdays.  Really.  But, since I am going on my 13th year of birthdays...and I am pretty sure I have cried at almost every one..it seems that it is something I can't escape.  But I'm trying.

Maxwell is truly a miracle baby to us.  Just a few days after he was home from the hospital, he was diagnosed with RSV.  We spent a week in the hospital, after not being home with him for a week.  The first night there was hard.  Only one of us was allowed to stay in the room.  That was me.  I won't ever forget calling Josh at some point in the evening frantic because Max was barely breathing.  His ICU room was filled with doctors and nurses, I couldn't even fit in the room.  I called Josh, not knowing what else to do.  I thought we were going to loose him that night.

But once the hospital staff got the situation under control, he started to gradually get better and better....

and here we are...10 years later.

 

 

Maxwell is my kind child.

I have a feeling he will be my gentle giant when he is older.

He is my child through and through.

He's very sensitive, which is hard to deal with sometimes - like his mom.  :)

He knows how to laugh

and have a good time too.

 

And I had to squeeze one in there from the past...that makes me want to cry some more.  This picture was taken by my favorite photographer, Kristie Kulik.

 

That was taken when he was three years old.  *sniff*

 

In order to fight off the tears, I am going to take my husband's advice and look forward, not backward.  I'm going to look forward to all the fun we will have in the future.

 

Like fishing with Uncle Bob...

 

and going new places.

 

So today...Celebrate, we will!

 

Happy Birthday Maxwelli...you are a true treasure to us and we love you so very much!