Endless partying during Birthday Week!

The best place to celebrate Caleb and Julian's birthday is up in Canada because July 1st is also Canada Day! Although the fireworks didn't hit until well after 11pm when it FINAlly gets dark up there, the festive spirit was running high all week. The boys got to blow out candles with cousin Boyd, whose birthday is just a couple days before theirs, and then their 'c-auntie' Jaima threw a pirate party for them. She had a really neat pirate water works boat with guns that shot water at people, swords, hats and shields and a 'buried treasure' cake. The cake was so good- Jaima made a layered pudding, whipping cream, and chocolate cake (so it looked like dirt). Perfect boy-party cake and I might have to make it if we ever do a dinosaur party.


I took sooo many photos while we were up there, I'm sure I bugged the heck out of everyone with my paparazzi-like compulsion. It's funny because people say they take less photos with each successive child, but I don't have a ton of photos of Caleb and Julian during their first couple years of life. I was distracted over my anxiety that they would ACTUALLY hit each stage of development that I was always trying to get them to hurry along to the next stage so I could feel a sense of relief when they got there. I was constantly obsessing over the best ways to help their development and the best food to give them (I would even make my own soup stock for the stews I made for them thinking it would help them in some small way. If you've ever made your own soup stock just for one baby food recipe you'll understand how crazy that is!!). Basically, I was a bit of a nut and didn't really enjoy their growth the way I've been able to with Jack and Christian.

I'm so much more relaxed yet much more aware of how time is passing. Now instead of worry whether they're going to continue to develop, I wish they would slow down! Every week the tide brings in so many changes and new areas of development, every month rings out little things that they're doing that they will never do again because they're growing and growing. My friend Krista (see Bimpire blog) said it well... "i guess it's a fight that nobody can win: the unbearable sweetness of tiny versus the breathtaking wonder of growth."


So my only solution is to capture it all like crazy. So I click my camera and journal and scrapbook and I know someday I'll be very glad that I did...