Busy with the Big Boy

That book thing....right. I haven't even looked at it. Between all the work involved in getting Nolan's new big boy room together, and the process of transitioning him into it, plus the two freelance writing gigs I got over the weekend, my book has been on the sidelines. Not that I am complaining about getting the freelance work at all - money is money right? No, I just can't believe they both came in right when I was going into the Big Boy Bed transition.

And on the subject of big boys, would someone like to tell me how exactly Nolan is over two and a half and in a big boy bed, and Aaron is heading for 18 months and walking around like he owns the place? Where did my babies go?

I rocked Nolan for the last time in his nursery and put him in his crib for the last time on Tuesday for his nap. All through the weekend, every time I was in that room I was reminded of all the times I have gone through that same routine with him. Of the long, long nights post-op when he couldn't sleep and I rocked him and sang to him and tried desperately not to fall off the chair with exhaustion. I have reflected on preparing that room for his arrival, on sitting in that chair and wondering what it would be like to hold my baby - and what he would look like. What this cleft we had been told about would really be like, and if everything would really be ok like everyone promised it would. It was. It is.

My little baby, born with a complete bilateral cleft lip and palate, is two and a half. His speech is excellent and you can barely see his scars. He is the poster child for cleft repair. And everything that I went through with him, it has made us all stronger.

He went down in his big boy bed tonight without crying at all - on only his second night in that new room. I am just proud of him, and overwhelmed by the reality that my first baby is really growing up, and that he is everything I could ever have wanted - and not in spite of his cleft, but because of it.