My posts must get repetitive as I seem to exclaim shock over every birthday and the passage of another year but Good Golly, stop already. My kids are growing up so very fast. This special time in our lives where family is the focus and we all are at the center of each other’s world is balancing precariously on an edge. Ben is almost 10 and before I know it they will all be ou
t and about and with friends and different interests and this special time will be gone. Diapers and sleepless nights and picking out clothes and begging for stories and hugs and snuggles is rapidly disappearing. I know I will miss is so very much.
And so my sweet little sunshine, my laughing ray of cheer, my peanut, my little red tomato, and all those other nicknames I call him, Matthew is now 8 years old. While I have a carbon copy of a younger version of him ( Nate) running around bothering me, they are
very different.
I see my sweet, contemplative, internal, quiet, little guy, growing up, getting smarter, and I love him so desperately it almost hurts. 
Happy Birthday my sweet Matthew
(Matt and his best friend, Nate)
