Eleven Years

...dance parties with our boys after dinner. 
...the overnight hike when we both thought we just might die up there. 
...our first moments with all three of our sweet babies. 
...the day you brought Ginger home to me. 
...all of the swear words uttered as we remodeled two houses. 
...the two hours in Chicago that I thought you had been mugged and killed.
...all of the nights you have comforted me after nightmares. 
...Paris. 
...the day you threw the bifold closet doors out the front door onto the lawn and swore you'd never install them again. 
...the night of 9/11. 
...that dinner at The Brooklyn.
...the trip to the ER with Ben when he was four months old. 
...weeks at Young Life camps with kids we loved together. 
...our 600 square foot house on Finn Hill.
...the weekends spent with our nieces and nephews before we had our own babies. 
...the road trip to California and up the coast.
...the hike when you realized for the first time JUST HOW terrified I am of snakes.
...the unexpected day spent in San Francisco. 
...the facial that sent you into a full blown panic attack.
...all of the nights that we've hosted parties at our house while we've hidden away in the nursery...loving on our babies...perfectly content to miss out on the fun. 
...the day we spent $700 to save Gus's life. 
...the way you told our parents that we were pregnant with Sam. 
...that awful night in London. 
...countless nights of being up together with sick kids.
...the day we sobbed our goodbyes to Ginger on the floor of the vet's office together.
...everytime we try not to laugh at something the boys are doing. 
...our sweet baby bubbles that have surrounded us after the births of all three. 
...the THREE MONTHS living in Northern Ireland.
...the day you asked my dad to go to Men's Weekend at Malibu. 
...my first Mother's Day. 
...all of the wrestling matches you have with the boys. 
...the fight we had over spray butter. 
...the gazillion times we've watched A Few Good Men. 
...Howth, Ireland.
...the Christmas Eve that we laid in bed and watched The Ya-Ya Sisterhood. 
...the look on your face when we pulled four-month-old Sam out of the car only to realize he hadn't been buckled in his carseat. 
...the late night we realized that hot water had been spewing out from a broken pipe under our house for over a week.
...the celebratory "WHOOOOOO HOOOOOO" you shouted out the front door the night our first African American president was elected. 
...the family meeting we had to tell the boys they were going to be big brothers. 
...our adorable flat in Belfast. 

...the way you love the boys.
...the way you love Maria.
...the way you love me.

Eleven years Babe.  Thank you.

Deep Thoughts by Ben

Ben is three-and-a-half going on six.  Our "middle child".  Our sweet preschooler who owns most of the same expectations as his kindergarten brother, but hardly ever gets (or takes) the credit for being as mature, responsible, self-sufficient, flexible and down right cool as he is.  It's so easy to forget how young he is because he rallies with the big boys so successfully.
This is the boy who about a week before he turned two, told me in his deep, frosty, no-nonsense voice, "I don't wear diapers anymore."  And he never did again.  And he never had an accident.  And he'd lie straight to your face if he actually did because he's way too cool to pee in his pants like a darn baby. 
Anyway, I love moments when I hear his own thoughts come out (usually without any context that we are aware of) and I can see and hear him for the little boy that he is.

Most of these quotes come from the backseat of our van when it has gotten all too quiet:

 

Mom! Chickens are wild aminals.  Mom! Bad guys catch good guys but police officers catch bad guys.  Mom! Did you hear me burp?  "No." Then I don't have to say 'Excuse me.'   Mom! Dolphins are blue and white.  Mom! Some boys have long hair.  Mom! Football players have moms too.  Mom! Every girl has a purse.  Mom! Maria can't eat donuts.  Mom! I'll get everyone who is bad sick.  Mom do basketball players ever wear their basketball shoes at the table?  Mom! Do you know why monster trucks say 'trucks' at the end?  Cause they're a kind of truck.  I won't lick babies.  Hey Dad!  You can't ride a turtle.   Mom! Every girl is a wife.    Mom! Dad is your father.  Mom! Rocks don't float on water.  They sink.  Mom! Who nursed Grampa Mark when he was a baby?  Mom! Moose's antlers are part of their bodies.  Mom!  How old will I be when I'm a dad?  Mom! Maybe Leprechans will come here... They're so fast. 

"I am a champion all by myself."

Benjamin