thankful thursday - baby j

Two years ago I was awake all night after an hour or two of restless "sleep" - pacing and rocking on all fours. Around 3am my mom arrived; John hustled me into the car and off we went. Before dawn lit the sky, I held pure joy in my arms.

Baby J is happiness personified. Everywhere we have gone for the past two years (except on the occasional trip where he's plumb tired of being out and fusses) people have asked if he's always this happy? Well...yes. He gets fussy if he wants something but he doesn't have a boatload of words yet, so who can blame him. He gets angry if he's gated out of the kitchen or kept out of my room (those areas are kept closed to his curious ways). But generally speaking - he is truly a happy little person.

And snuggly and delicious and warm and sweet and lovey and kissy...oh, the list goes on. I cannot believe it's been a whole two years since first I held him in my arms. How completely he belongs with us - in our hearts, in our home. How much he adores his big brother and sister.

He also gets into more things than my other two kids put together. He empties the bookshelves like Miss C used to do, but then he climbs onto them (and gets stuck). He likes to sneak into a bathroom and undo as much as he can in the 10 seconds it takes for me to realize he's missing again - turn on the tub, unroll the toilet paper, flush the potty, dump the q-tips . . . . or meander out with the plunger if it's handy. He's artistically managed to sneak crayons and pencils (colored and plain alike) onto my walls several times in the past few months. Recently, he managed to climb up onto the cabinet in the playroom that our bird is on - I found him sitting there, face to her cage talking (a few minutes before, he'd climbed on something to reach over and attempt to open her cage...).

There is a thrill for him in sneaking into Little B's room and grabbing a Lego piece for a trophy of accomplishment or making it to Miss C's room and trying to play with her myriad of Littlest Pet Shop toys or the toy computer. He moves faster than I can; I gave up trying to keep up with him long ago. And, oh, the delight he gets from his escapades! There are not words for the grins and squeals and joy that ooze from him!

Yesterday, I spent a bit of extra time on the couch loving on him. At one point, I was naming body parts, he was pointing them out. After a moment I noticed a dry booger in his nose and did a total mommy thing - I picked his nose. I mean, what else would I do? Make a big deal out of it and get a tissue? That takes too long. He was amused. And proceeded to try to pick my nose for me - full of giggles....

Happy Birthday my little Tiger!