Home of the Four Trans

August 13th marks two milestones in my children’s lives.

First, it is the day of Nathan’s coming into this world. He is my firstborn and represents true love. I never knew I could love anyone so much until I met him. From the moment I held him for the first time after 10 months of incubating him, 12 hours of labor, and 27 minutes of pushing, I knew I had a special boy on my hands. He turned his head to respond to my mom on one side, and my mother in law on the other when they called him. He also gave me eye contact. What kind of newborn who had just undergone the trauma of entering the birth canal does things like that? Mine, apparently. Nathan has never failed to amaze me since then. Upon meeting, most people think he’s 4 or 5, but, he’s now only 3. He knows how to negotiate. For example, I’ll tell him, “If you eat all your food (he is a lazy eater), you can have 5 m&ms.” He’ll respond with, “How about 10 m&ms,” then raise up both hands to show me 10. Nathan is a person you have to experience to understand how amazing he is. Words cannot describe how humorous and intelligent he is. I thought there was not possibly any more room in me to love another child the way I love him. I thought how unfair it would be for our other children (and if we should have any more) because I would not love them the same way.

Then, Justin came into the world and proved me wrong. We’ve jumped through firey hoops with this one, and would do it all again for him. One year ago on August 13th, Justin had his first open heart surgery that sent us all on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Now, a year later, he is a bouncing bundle of joy who just smiles, smiles, smiles.

My plan was to take the boys to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach to celebrate (they both love watching the fish swim around and around). But, of course, Nathan had one of his 20 minute tantrums because he was “tired”, and did not want to get in the car. Instead, he wanted his milk in a bottle (yes, he’s still on the bottle. He knows how to drink out of a cup, but loves his bottle because it’s comforting), lay on the couch, and watch CARS. I had packed everything into the car, with one remaining item left to load (Nathan), and he threw everything out, including his favorite white blanket and pillow, soiling it in disgusting dirt, germs, and wood chips (from one of Loi’s projects). I put it in the laundry closet. More crying ensued. Meanwhile, Justin was in my arms, staring at his brother like, “What the heck are you doing?.” There were moments when Justin even flapped his arms in excitement, thinking all the rukus was some game. When his brother did not respond to the arm flapping and squealing, he got confused and started to cry. I loaded Justin back in the car in the garage (to keep him away from the noise), and tried to calm Nathan down. I gathered all my patience up, bent down to his level and told him that I knew he was tired, and that I loved him. I gave him a hug, and that (finally) made everything better. By then, it was already 4 o’ clock, Justin was tired, and I was exhausted, so we all took a nap together.

An hour later, I woke up and prepared the house for our family to come over for Nathan’s 3rd celebration (so spoiled!). Loi came home with the food (prime rib and sides. Yum!) and built Nathan’s present (a bite sized CARS computer desk). After a 3 hour nap, Nathan woke up to opening presents from his aunties. After dinner and cake, Nathan received his gift from us that was hidden under a blanket.

We celebrated Justin’s anniversary by saying “Happy Anniversary.” We didn’t want to take this day away from Nathan.

We have had more parties this year than ever, with each of our boys celebrating their birthdays three times. But, I’m not complaining. I’ll take planning a party to planning a surgery any day!

Here’s to a healthy year for both my boys.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Birthdays, Baby Book, Justin, Nathan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.