Abe's 2!

2 years and 9 months ago Billy's sister called to tell us she was pregnant. For those who don't know, if one person in Billy's family is having a baby, someone else is too. Ben has a cousin (Billy's brother's little boy) 5 weeks older than he is and another cousin (Billy's sister's little boy) who is 5 weeks younger than he is. Merrie Cannon has a cousin (Billy's brother's little girl) who is 2 1/2 weeks younger than she is. So after we got off the phone with Debbie, I laughed and thought "I wonder who will be pregnant with her." I thought maybe Alison (Billy's brother's wife), after all, they only have 2 kids. Little did I know that about a week later I would wake up, crack open my morning coke, take a big sip, and almost vomit all over the kitchen. I knew at that moment who the lucky one was. Although I slipped to the drug store to buy a test, I didn't need one. I had felt those feelings 3 times previously.

We, well, I decided this baby's gender would be surprise and we spent 9 months trying to "figure out" if we were having a boy or girl. We already had 2 girls and a boy, so I didn't need anything, and since our rooms were full there was no nursery to decorate. I highly recommend not finding out. If I could do it all over again all of our babies would have been "surprises." (They actually all pretty much were surprises, we just found out the gender for the first 3.) Delivery is soooo much fun when you don't know - and your epidural works.

Baby Abe was born 3 weeks early - a mere 4 days after his cousin Aly was born. He has been my challenge. He exited the birth canal opinionated. He cried a lot - and still does. He didn't sleep all night until we moved him from our closet and a pink crib(MC was to be the last and I couldn't resist the pink crib when we had to buy a new one) - this happened to coincide with getting tubes, but I think he had a complex.

He loves Barney, ball, biting his sister, a bottle (he's been off it for months and still asks for one), his blanket, Barney, being rocked to sleep, cars, being outside, Elmo, Wiggles, and did I mention Barney? None of my kids hug me like he does. I mean a full on squeeze and you don't think he will ever let go - and he's done it since he was 6 months old. Passionate. That's what he is. Not easily redirected, focused on the task at hand - which normally involves getting me to do what he wants me to do.

We've asked him how old he is all day and he insists that he is 8. We tell him 2, but in true Abe style he is trying to convince us otherwise. Happy Birthday Abey Baby - I can't believe you are 2!