28 and wiggle worm

We have been super busy in our house celebrating Matthew's, the man Paxton and I both love, birthday! We headed out to Kemah Saturday afternoon to not only enjoy the mini vaca but also for Matthew to compete in an Olympic Triathlon Sunday morning.  We ate dinner with our Tri4Him team Saturday night and then went to bed early to prepare for the day ahead.  Sleeping in a hotel with Paxton is always kind of iffy.  He is an awesome sleeper and 90% of the time, I can lay him down in his crib, walk out the room and within 3 minutes he is crashed. Well, at the hotel, he had other plans.  I rocked him a few minutes, layed him down drowsy, thinking he would drift off to sleep.  I walked away and joined Matthew in bed, 15 minutes go by, not a sound.  I just know he is out... then I hear... bahbahbahbah....dadadadada... momamomamoma.  I walk over to the pack n play and he is wide awake, sitting in the pack n play just smiling away.  So, after lots of humming, swaying and rocking, Paxton fell asleep... then we could sleep, sorta.  4;30 rolled around and Matthew was up getting ready to head down the street to the Tri and Pax and I slept away until about 6.  We dragged outselves out of bed, mom and dad picked us up and we too, headed to the triathlon. We got there at the perfect time, the sun was rising in the bay and we could see the boat Matthew was going to jump off of in a matter of minutes.  7:00 Matthew starts swimming! 30 minutes later, he is out of the water heading into Transition and off on his bike! Soon thereafter he is back from his ride and changing shoes to head out for a 10k.  We met up with Aunt Ashley, Uncle Thomas, Great Aunt Cindy and Great Grandma Reibenstein towards the finish as we all waited to see our Birthday boy cross the finish line!

I get such an adrenaline rush from watching these races and truly enjoy them.... call me crazy but they are way fun! My favorite thing to do is guess peoples age and then check as they run by (they have their age written in sharpie on their calf). It is truly inspirational to see 50, 60, 70, 80 year olds out on the course. 

 Matthews Aunt Cindy and Grandma

 Paxton and silly Uncle Thomas

 This was taken before the race... beautiful sunrise and Matthew was on the boat waaaay in the distance

 Aunt Ashley, Paxton and Matthew

After the Triathlon, we headed to the boardwalk for lunch, All of us, and even met up with Amanda and baby Samuel to celebrate Matthews Birthday!

We had such a great day, the weather was great and Paxton was a trooper!

Speaking of Paxton, he is everywhere. He is crawling faster than some people can walk and he is into everything.  I knew we were going to be in trouble when he was mobile and boy are we ever.  He wants to be held, wants down, wants to crawl oh just kidding wants to walk, wants to stand, wants to sit, wants me to feed him wants to feed himself, wants to jump, wants to fly... I could go on and on!

I am so happy he is moving on his own now, simply because HE has wanted to be mobile for so long.  He can now explore all of those things he has wanted to the past  few months and he can make choices he has never been able to make before.  It is so fun to see him go from thing to thing and place to place. 

My inspiration for the title of this post though came tonight when I was putting him to bed.  I call him my wiggle worm when he so badly wants to move but tonight when he had his bath, had his jammies on, the lights were dim and he was in my arms drinking his bottle, he went from being a strong, independent "little boy" back to my little baby boy, limp as a little slug (gross visual)... so trusting, so sweet... my little sugar bear (as I call him).  It is these moments when I regret wanting him to grow up, wishing I could hold him in my arms forever... I hear the "You're gonna miss this" song in my head...  

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

We had a BUSY weekend - and my days at school have been especially tiring and rough... but I come home to my sweet boys and the worries of the world go away.  I just try to remember that as hard as life may seem - I will miss these days - soak it all in :)

Happy Birthday, Matthew James!  We love you!