Three

Kevin, "Ellis, do you know how old you are going to be tomorrow?"
Ellis, "Ummm, maybe, pink?"

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Its a bizarre deja vu situation, having a new baby just a week before your older child turns 3.  As if a birthday wasn't enough in and of itself to make a Mama all gooey and weepy about time going by and revisiting the that first meeting with your child...

And then there is this enchanting wee lassie as well, whose birth is so recent and of course brings memories of Ellis' arrival flooding back.

The first few months of Ellis' life were a blur with worry and struggling to breastfeed and a lot of tears.

But as is the case with small children, it changes in a blink of an eye and here we are at the big 3 years old. Well, what can I say, I may be a bit tearful and sad and gloriously happy. But there you go, my wee boy is 3. And what a wonderful 3 it is.

In true Slugs on the Refrigerator style (and because lengthy paragraphs are still just outside the scope of  my hormone-laden brain's ability), I bring you the best things about Ellis right now in list form.

:: How much he loves his baby sister and how fantastically he is adjusting to the change in our lives. He is thriving in our new family and becoming more grown up an independent every day. Challenging times may well be ahead, but right now, he is doing great!

:: His enthusiasm.  For everything. If he decides he is going to play ball, he is going to do it and love it more and louder than anyone else.  If he is going to bake, he is going to delight in every aspect of that process (especially the tasting!).  He lives his life with everything he's got.

:: How he tries to make us laugh.  He is constantly putting on some show or telling a joke or engaging in some crazy endeavour for the sole purpose of entertaining us.

:: His undying love of his cats.  They are loved and chased and played with constantly.  (It helps that Icarus is more dog than cat and will often go on walks to the park).

:: Every morning, he wakes up talking.  He tells us how excited he is that its sunny (or not), who he'd like to see today, informs us of the cats latest antics, and generally exudes just infectious enthusiasm, even Kevin the Morning Grump is usually won over. 

Happy Birthday, my dearest love!

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Some of you may have seen some old posts pop up in your reader? I was looking at posts from the old blog of when Ellis was born and I accidentally re-published them, which sent notifications to Twitter and Google Reader. I am not sick, sleeping better than I ever did in pregnancy and am generally in the best mood I've been in at least a year. This is all in spite of the fact that the boiler is dying a slow death and, in mourning, the oven decided to kick the bucket as well. Thank you for your well wishes, all the same.

And hey, who can be in a bad mood when you get to spend the day looking at this: