fortnerfamilyhappenings: Happy Birthday to the First Baby

Let's take a trip back about, oh say 7 months or so, to August 13, 2010. Actually, let's dash back to August 13, 2004, then we will come back to the more recent past and then to the future. In August of 2004, Jonathan and I were busy trying to make our tiny little Oxford house livable (our labor of love at the time) when my phone rang. It was Catherine calling to tell me Irene was on her way. I sat on our front steps for half an hour amazed that she was in labor and still able to call and tell me that our sweet girl was soon to make her arrival, and then just thinking about what an awesome blessing Irene was already. I was even more amazed when a few hours later, feasting over a Wendy's hamburger and nursing sore muscles from days of painting, she called to tell me Irene was here (my soreness suddenly seemed mighty weak). It was my first taste of sudden deep love for a child, one that I would fully experience a year and a half later. My closest friend was a mother and I immediately loved her child. Love for a child is such a testament to our Father's love for us. Irene had done nothing at that point to earn any love from me, and yet, I loved her immensely. We have done nothing to justify God's love for us, and yet his love and mercy for us comes from his hand in creating us. We are made in his image and he loves us not because of anything we have done, but in spite of that. Just as Irene provided a taste of the love I would feel for my own children, the overwhelming love I have for them is just a grain of sand compared to our father's love for us. Now, 6 years later, my love for both of Catherine's girls has grown right along with them.

I asked Holt one day who is best friend was and he said a friend at school. I was surprised because he had always said Irene before. When I asked, "What about Irene?" he told me, "Oh Mama, Irene is more than a best friend she's a cousin. You know?" More than you know kid.

Now back to the weekend of Irene's 6th birthday: Holt and I hitched a ride to Houston with Mamie and Papa, Sugar and A.J. for Irene's birthday tea party. The highlight of the ride for me was watching Holt watch the movies I had purchased for the trip. He had headphones on and I was reading, but every now an then Holt would let out a howl of laughter, or I would catch sight of him squirming out of the corner of my eye and I would end up watching him watch the movie for several minutes. One of the movies I bought for him was the Disney movie, Davy Crockett. I noticed Holt wriggling in his seat. He looked like he was wrestling/boxing an imaginary person so I turned my attention to the tv. On the screen Davy was fighting with an Indian, in typical Disney fashion the blows and struggles were overboard, but Holt was loving it. The scene climaxed when Davy had the Indian pinned against a tree and then in a show of solidarity and friendship let the Indian go. When this happened Holt let out a sigh of annoyance and rolled his eyes. He just couldn't understand why Davy didn't finish him. It was pretty amusing watching this little show play out.

Once in Katy, we had a blast playing with cousins and party prepping. The tea party was a hit, even for Holt and during present time Holt's love for pillow pets was born (more on that to come). Holt and I are already looking forward to many August 13ths to come.

I decided to take the kids to the little park down the street while party preparations were underway. No one appreciates the value of 30 minutes of a childfree home like I do. Seriously, give a mom 30 minutes of kidfree time and she can clean a house, cook a meal and possibly negotiate world peace. I snapped this little picture on the way to the park. My exact instructions were make happy faces; I get this.

Creating more kidfree party prep time with a water hose. Now, those are happy faces.

We had a limited number of sticky birthday flag letters. I don't know who was in charge of purchasing the letters, but this is all we could come up with.