Happy Birthday Tiny!

Enjoying summer and s'mores

Two years ago today Tiny was born! He has brought so much joy into our lives every day since. He is such a sweet, mellow, happy boy. He loves his brother, loves his dog, and he just loves to play.

I love everything about him. His bright yellow hair, his blue inquisitive eyes, the way he scrunches up his nose when he's mad. I love his soft toddler legs, and the way that he sleeps all twisted up. I love how he likes to play "mama sad" where I pretend that I'm sad and then he kisses me and I'm happy again. I love how he makes up his own language, and how until recently he called water "awah" and would say "doh" instead of yes. I love that he calls Lightening McQueen "Bob." I love that he is such a ball player, that he already is learning how to dribble a basketball, do a layup, put spin on a football when he throws it, and hit a golf ball with some form. I love that he asks me to do criss cross applesauce on his back.

Tiny and his big brother meeting for the first time.

He got the name Tiny because he came into this world very big, weighing in at 10 pounds 9 ounces, and he has been a big boy ever since. When he was first born I didn't like that everyone made such a big deal about how big he is. There is so much more to him: he's beautiful and has such a peaceful soul. Even at birth I could see that, and I didn't want the fact that he was big to be his whole story. But I have grown to love that this is part of his story. I love that he is our big teddy bear, our gentle giant.

One week old and beautiful.

His arrival was also very healing for us. I delivered his older brother with a cesarean because we discovered he was breech when I was very far along in labor. We were rushed by ambulance from the warm, peaceful tub at our birth center to the hospital operating room, and the experience was traumatic. It left an emotional wound that was difficult to heal.

Having a natural birth after a c-section is very hard to do in this country anymore, sadly. Even though it is much safer in most cases to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) than a repeat c-section, it is very difficult to find caregivers and hospitals who will support mothers looking to have a VBAC.

One week old smile.

So when I delivered Tiny naturally, and completely unmedicated, it was very healing. It gave me closure and removed all my doubts about whether I could ever experience childbirth the way I wanted to. A natural birth was something I have always wanted, a gift that I wanted to give to my babies, and it was such an empowering experience. Delivering a 10 pound 9 ounce baby also felt like a major accomplishment. It is something I will always be so proud of.

This boy knows how to enjoy life.

Tiny has healed and transformed us as parents as well, by way of mellowing us out. Perhaps his mellow attitude has rubbed off on us. It also has been just a side-effect of having two children. The amount of time and attention we have is limited more than when we had one child, so we cannot obsess about making all the right parenting decisions like we could when we just had our oldest to focus on. We've also come to realize that it is better to have more relaxed and present parents, even if that means we don't have a super green vegetable on the menu every single day (and the children's vitamins sometimes go missing for three days at a time because someone puts them away in the toy kitchen).

The second time around, we now see that the details matter less than the big picture. I guess you could say that Tiny has taught us not to sweat the small stuff.