Preparing for tomorrow...

Tomorrow is a very special day. My dear Caillou will celebrate his 3rd birthday. Today has been a day of preparing. We baked his birthday cake together this morning, frosted it and covered it with sprinkles! I get all weepy and emotional thinking about how fast he has grown. I wish I could rewind time and snuggle him once more as he was when he was a wee little newborn. I look at pictures of him, and I just don't know how the time has flown by so fast. It amazes me how many changes he has gone through right before my eyes. Three years ago today, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. I was waddling around like a nervous wreck, wondering just how bad a c-section was going to be. I was eating large quantities of mexican food at a restaurant called Acapulco. I walked up and down Grand Ave, visited friends who owned a little homemade soap shop on that street. Sat in an old fashioned little coffee shop and sipped hot cocoa. I counted diapers, again and again, convinced that the 600 or so that I had would surely not be enough. I packed and unpacked my diaper bag, I paced, I smoothed crib sheets, and I waited. I remember the last thing I ate was a chocolate donut from Peterson's donut corner, before the c-section fasting began. I remember waiting the morning of the 8th waiting to go to the hospital. I remember getting extremely nervous in the underground parking lot of the hospital, my mama and mom giving me a beautiful pink blanket for myself during the hospital stay, and nervously muttering something, and walking very slowly towards the maternity ward. I remember waiting, I remember nervously rambling to my anithesiologist about heartburn, I rememeber the nurse holding me tightly while I was getting my spinal. I remember laying on the table, convinced that I was falling off, I remember the doctors chatting away as I was in surgery, I remember pressure and tugging, and feeling as if my insides were being completely removed, and then were the first cries...and in that moment I became a mother, the most wonderful, joyous, beautiful, happiest moments of my life began that day. Caillou was a delightful baby, smart and adorable, wild and wonderful, full of energy and smiles and mischief from the day he was born. He made my heart melt, and I fell desperately in love with him. Tomorrow as we celebrate these past 3 years of Caillou's journey through life so far, I will look back at some of the tender moments of his babyhood, the exciting moments of his first steps and first words, the chaotic moments of wild todderhood, and I will cherish it all, and look forward to the many more beautiful moments I will share with this darling child of mine.