6!

I distinctly remember the moment during my maternity leave with Collin when I realized half of my allotted time away from work had already passed. We were walking around the "loop", Collin peacefully sleeping in his Baby Bjorn, while I tried unsuccessfully to squelch my anxieties about all of our unknowns...Would I have to return to work?, If so, who would watch Collin?, How would I ever leave my baby with strangers? Why would I let someone else be with him for all of his "firsts"?... I desperately wanted our time together to last forever...but had a sinking feeling that he would only be mine for a short time. As we marked Collin's 6th birthday, the same sinking feeling returned...the one where I realized that a third, YES ONE WHOLE THIRD, of our time with Collin has already passed. Collin at 7:27 am on Tuesday, March 7, 2006, exactly 1 year old. Collin, 5 years later, at 7:27 am on Monday, March 7, 2011, age 6! I was so grateful that Molly was amiable to loaning out Henry and James for an impromptu birthday celebration when I called her on Wednesday. We had planned to borrow the Anderson kids and go swimming at LFT in Lakeville, but both Henry and James were recovering from secondary ear infections following strep throat, so swimming was out. After discussing our limited last-minute options, we landed on an outing to Chuck-E-Cheeses, where we also celebrated Collin's 2nd birthday. We began the day, Saturday, March 5, with our scheduled morning tennis lessons at LFT with David. BaPa Minnows and Honey Honey stopped by to watch and then treated us to a celebratory 6th birthday lunch at Chipolte. Honey Honey and Minnows then stopped by the house with presents for the two birthday boys. Collin snuggles with his new travel pillow. Collin also opened Color Explosion, a Sponge Bob activity book, a remote control light switch, a t-shirt from Cabo, and money for his education fund. He later received the remainder of his gift, fishing lures, in the mail a couple days later. The gifts were in his words, "a direct hit"...meaning, he loved them. Minnows and Honey Honey left as Matt arrived with Henry and James. Collin immediately opened his gift from Henry, a Spiderman t-shirt and new Transformer. We were then off to Chuck-E-Cheese's for an afternoon of arcade fun. Distributing the tokens... Skee Ball Cashing in... The boys enjoy a new family mealtime favorite, chicken quesadillas, made from a Cub rotisserie chicken. From left to right, Nolan, Aaron, James, Collin and the back of Henry's head. The Anderson boys spent the night at our house, with Collin and Henry sharing Collin's room while Aaron and James slept together in the guest bedroom. Matt picked up the boys around 10:30 on Sunday morning. Collin was happy to spend his birthday celebration with his "best friend, Henry", instead of with all of his classmates from school. In the next 2 weeks, Collin will attend birthday parties for two classmates; first, a cowboy themed party for Henry Ritchie at his house, followed by a party at the Richardson Nature Center for Sam Everett the following Saturday. On Sunday, March 6 we gave in to an early gift opening, allowing Collin to open his present Lori and Issac (more Color Explosion), followed by his gifts from us: a Gorilla pillow pet, a youth yoga mat and video, a Bacugan, and Quickstart Wilson tennis balls. By the time Collin's actual birthday arrived, our celebration was waning. Nolan and I dropped off fudge striped cookies and juice boxes at Westwood for Collin to share with his classmates at snack time. After Adam arrived home from work we went to Nick and Willy's for pizza. Since Collin's favorite treat is ice cream, we indulged in dilly bars from Dairy Queen as a substitution for cake. Happy 6th Birthday Collin...I'm so grateful to share this life with you.