Our eldest baby boy turned 7 at 1:05 am on the 5th of July.  Every year as I watch the fireworks, I can’t help but recall the intense, but calm in an odd way, drive to the birth center the night of July 4th, 2002.  As we drove down the highway, counting my contractions that were 3 minutes apart, we watched as all the little towns along the way had their fireworks show.  Between the soothing music we had playing (“Echos” if you know the show on NPR in Cincy) and the pretty lights all over the sky, it kept my mind at ease and distracted.

When he arrived just an hour into the 5th, my life was forever changed as I became the mother of my first son.  It was a whole new world….one that seemed so strange because I had been only used to a little girl for 3 years.  Now I had this baby boy, and my wonderful husband had a son.  It was a happy night.

This is the first time Priya met her brother Adin Josiah.

This is Adin at about 6 months old.  Those cheeks and eyes combined made this Mama turn into a ball of mush.

For Adin’s big day, what he wanted more than anything was for his Uncle Jason to be there.  Uncle Jason lives in L.A. and if you are a blog follower, you’ve seen his face on here a few times before.  My kids happen to adore him, pretty close to the amount that he adores them.  :)   Jason had considered coming, and then plans fell through and it didn’t seem it would work out.  When I had to break the news to Adin about a month ago, he was heart broken and said he really didn’t care to have a birthday at all (dramatic I know).

A few weeks later Jason said that he bought a ticket and was going to surprise him.  :)  Isn’t he a great Uncle?

Brett and I were so excited for the kids, and especially Adin who was still sad about Uncle J not being able to be there at his party.  About 3 days before Jason would be coming, Adin called and pleaded one more time and said, “Can you just try to come for 1 day?”  :)

The morning of the 2nd his flight came in early.  I had a little surprise concocted.  When I got a text from Jason that he was on our street, I kept the kids occupied and away from the windows….I had wrapped the present you see below-placed it on the front porch and had Brett ring the doorbell.  When the kids went to the door they saw the present with a tag that said, “To Adin: Open carefully.”  They immediately thought their neighbor friend had left it.  Adin opened the gift to find only a piece of paper that said he had “an early birthday present, but he had to find clues to get to the gift.”

They got their shoes on and ran out the door with excitement!  The first clue took them to the mailbox and then on from there….

It made me laugh that they were oblivious to the camera I had in their face, and they just went along with it so well.

The last clue said that they needed to “look for a balloon and that is where the present would be.”  They spotted a balloon at their backyard fort.

When Adin climbed up, he popped his head back out. He was SHOCKED.  The other two were screaming and excited, and Adin wasn’t sure what to say or do (I love watching their personality differences…).

Needless to say, Adin was happy.  He hung on Uncle J all weekend.

On the 3rd we had a backyard grill out, complete with family, hot dogs and hamburgers, baseball, sparklers and fresh mint blackberry mojitos.  Oh, and fireworks of course!

Being up on a hill, we have an excellent view.

On Adin’s birthday he got a key-lime cheesecake and an ipod from Mama + Baba.  And of course Uncle J was there DJing the party, so his day went really well.  :)

We had a great weekend together as a family, and it was so great to have some down time.  (We’ve needed it!)

We can hardly believe our little guy turned 7!  It seems that time just keeps going by more and more quickly….which makes it even more important to cherish these moments while they are still young.