Where Has it Gone?

Jack turned 2 on Saturday. In some ways, it seems like he has been here so much longer than that, but yet it has flown by. I know that this is a common feeling among parents, and people are always telling new parents that, yet I can't help but be shocked by it still. I look at my little man today and can barely recall the infant he was 2 years ago. I look at videos and photos from then and I struggle to remember the time. Not to mention what it was like to have just one child!

We spent Saturday together as a famiy, which is exactly how I wanted it. There will be so many oppurtunities in the future for parties "on the day", that I wanted it to be just us at least this one time. His party with the family and others is this Saturday. We went to the aquarium at the Mall of America and had such a nice time. Jack loved pointing out the fish and the turtles and seemed quite in awe of it all. To be honest, Chad and I were, too. It is a fabulous aqaurium, and I am thinking that next year we will get a family pass. It is so close by, and it would be nice to go in the winter during the day if we are feeling restless (and we have to pay for kids at 3 years old). We had lunch at the mall, too, and then we went back home. The original plan was to head to the rides in the mall, but Jack isn't very fond of them yet, and Chad and I were awful tired. Jack went down for a nice nap, and we just did some stuff around the house. We had a simple dinner and a Jell-o cake I made (it looked horrible but Jack liked it; he yelled "CAKE" for two days after it!) and then it was bedtime! Chad actually went back to the aqarium, since he said he was too busy with Jack to appreciate it, and I sat down to watch Jack's video. I watched his birth (ok, you don't actually see it, Chad placed the camera perfectly) and the hour or so afterwards is on there. At first I wanted to cut it shorter, but I like listening to it all and hearing what we were all saying. I cried some, it is just such a huge moment in my life, and I realized that there is no way I am done having kids. One more, that is all I ask. Chad got home as I hit about the middle of the tape, and we watched the rest together. It was a very nice evening and it went just the way I wanted it to. I am hoping that next year Jack will watch the video with me, with the new additions from this year on it. And hopefully for a few more years after that, until he is a sullen teenager who won't even sit next to me. But at least I will be getting a full night's rest (unless he is out, driving around).

2 years down, and hopefully decades and decades and decades to go.