he'll always be my baby

Today Miller turned 7.

It is amazing how fast life flies by. How just yesterday I was 25 and cuddling my very first baby boy. He was so beautiful and perfect, and holy cow, a lot of work to expel from my body. He was a little worse for the wear... after 3 1/2 hours of pushing, out he came with the assistance of the vacuum. He was bruised on his head and his little nose, and had that little cone head. And a tiny bruise on his neck, which we later learned was a hemangioma.

There was nothing that could prepare me for the overwhelming love I could have for my kids. Even when they are at their worst, when I want to lock myself in my room just to escape, I love them more than life itself. They're my world.

So here is a little walk down memory lane. Don't grow up so fast, baby boy.




Miller at 5 months, on daddy's back at the beach

at 12 months, he experienced his first snow



at 19 months, he underwent surgery to remove his hemangioma.

Here he is in the spring of 2001... can you see the twinkle in his mischievous little eyes?

And the first trip to the beach that he can remember

In September 2001, we went to Iowa. Here he is sliding down the fun slide at the park behind his great-grandma's house.

And that winter, we got some snow

And more snow a month later, right as Miller was turning 3!

In the spring of 2002 we went back to Myrtle Beach for the first (and only) time since moving back to NC in the summer of 1999.

And that fall, Daddy and Miller went to the zoo on a guy's trip... the last before the arrival of his new baby brother:-)

Playing at the playground in the fall of '02.

So proud of a bug shell they found...

Now 4, here he is in late summer '03 with our sweet (yet slightly naughty) girl, Sally

And in the summer of 2004, Miller started kindergarten.

The spring of 2005...

April brought the very first visit from the tooth fairy.

Mother's Day 2005


And my beautiful little guy now...