Aaron was a surprise baby. Not planned by us, but definitely planned by Someone. I remember that Dave and I had gone back and forth a few times discussing whether to have a 3rd child or not. I was all for it, he was not so sure. One day when we were driving home from somewhere, and Nathan (then just newly 2), and Matthew (5.5) were fast asleep in the backseat, Dave took a look at them in the rearview mirror and was so taken with that picture of sweetness that he said to me, "Ok, we can have a 3rd." Well, little did he (or I) know, I was already a few days pregnant with Aaron at that time. All this to say, Aaron was definitely meant to be and we are so thankful to the Lord that He planned this little one to be here in our family.
We had the hardest time thinking of a name for him. There are so many boys in our family that we didn't want to duplicate names. I wanted something not too common. One night at dinner, some dear friends suggested, "How about Aaron?" It stuck in our brains. Aaron means "Mountain of Strength," and his middle name, Theodore, means "Gift of God" and is also for his grandfather who is a Theodore himself.
My due date was May 29th. So when it came and went, I wasn't too disturbed. After all - Nathan was a day late, too. But then when May turned into June and still no baby - it was hard for me to be patient! Anyway, he arrived just at the perfect time and was perfectly healthy and beautiful! It was an easy, but long labor (they always had been for me), spent watching the Dodgers (something about baseball is conducive to labor - the rhythm, the alternating moments of stress and the moments of relaxation) and just putting around the house. Dave's parents came at around 9pm and we headed to Methodist Hospital.
Once there, I was a bit frustrated because my contractions petered out. But I was dilated to 7, and things progressed. He was born at 12:40am. Even through the pushing stage, my contractions were about 5-8 minutes apart. Definitely not a textbook labor. When he slid out and was lifted onto my chest, I looked down at him and thought to myself, "I feel like I have seen you before!" Aaron looked so much like Nathan at birth. He was 7 pounds even, and just beautiful!
Here's a trip down memory lane. . .
This is Aaron at his first West Coast Christian Conference - only 6 weeks old!
Aaron is a couple of months old here. He LOVED to lie on Daddy's legs like this when he was a newborn.
First Halloween. He was 4 months old here. We were at a Harvest Party, and I love love love this picture. It's really more a pic of Nathan than of Aaron. But look how vigilantly Batman is guarding the baby!
First birthday.
Second birthday.
And today - his 3rd birthday!
For those who know our Aar Bear, you know that he is a little chatterbox! But he is shy, too, so if you are just meeting him you may not know that he talks at all. His favorite things to do right now are - play Tickle Monster with Daddy, play legos, watch Max and Ruby, and take out all the DVDs, line them up, open them to see if the discs are inside, close them and stack them back again! He does that every, single, day!
Happy happy birthday, little Aar Bear. We love you very very much! You are a treasure to all of us, sweet love.
Aw, what lovely photos! :)
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