Henry is four! Here he is with a sword he made out of Tinker Toys, and the giant forehead mosquito bite that prompted me to reschedule his portraits:
Good call.
I don’t generally do much Kid Birthday Talk here (oh, Kid Birthday FRETTING, sure, but I mean I save the developmental lists and sentimentality for my own journal, where even _I_ generally find them boring), but I’m a little different about Henry because he seems like a Blog Baby: he was BORN here. And today, when he turns 4 while the twins are still 5, it seems a little crazy to look back at when he was born: those little toddler twins, and then bringing a baby home before their 2nd birthday. But there he was. Henry. If there’d been two of him, I’ll bet we would have made the local paper: “Two Sets of Twins Under Two!”
Here we are, right before he arrived:
Tired much?
This is a picture I didn’t want to keep because I thought I looked so dreadful. Now I’m so glad I made myself keep it, because I care about “having a picture of me pregnant and holding my toddler twins” more than I care about “my neck wrinkles and double chin and pinkish pregnancy skin and pulled-weird neckline and tensely-clenched hand.” Those neck wrinkles aren’t going to get any SHALLOWER over the years, anyway.
And then a few days later I was back in my chair:
With a slight change.And then less than two weeks later, the twins’ 2nd birthday, which I must have BAKED CAKES for while recovering from a c-section:
Yeah, I don’t really remember it. Good thing I have photos.Henry’s birthday also feels different to me because he’s the caboose child: every birthday he has, the train pulls further away from the station. And sometimes that seems like a very happy, light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel kind of thing, and other times it seems like a very sad, midlife-crisis-inducing kind of thing. Because this is great:
But it means no more this:
Happy 4th birthday to Henry! I remember when he was born and I was super excited – especially because you were a month or so ahead of me, pregnancy wise, so I delighted in all your newborn wisdom. I *remember* that sweet little newborn picture. But I don’t remember you talking much about the twins being so young! And now that I think about it I want to go back in time and send you a casserole.
Happy Birthday Henry! I remember when he was born because I was at the computer all the time, being hot and pregnant with J and thinking awww I want a baby, hey wait I AM making a baby. :) And it hardly seems like 4 years ago *snif*
Happy Birthday, sweet Henry! 4? Really? Wow. I mean, wow. How are these babies all growing up when we aren’t getting older? I mean, we’re not, right? RIGHT??!
Happy birthday, Henry!!
And Swistle, happy fifth-baby’s-fourth-birthday to you. It sounds like a lovely but bittersweet occasion.
Awww, I love the picture of pregnant you with the twins. Sweet!
I hear you on the bittersweet. Yesterday we had dinner with a family whose older two match up with ours, but their youngest is three years younger than our youngest, and I spent the evening ping-ponging between “What we have is so much easier, and still awesome” and “Oh, what a scrumptious toddler!”
Happy Birthday, Henry! I remember watching my reader for your post-hospital post. *sniff*
Aww, happy birthday to Henry! That last picture makes my 6 month old seem so big. I’m missing the floppy new-bornness already.
My youngest is my caboose child (clearly duh). She’s EIGHT. I still feel bittersweet about every milestone she hits because she’s MAH BAY-BEE.
Happy Birthday to Henry! I started reading your blog just before he was born….seems like yesterday.
Just for the record, when I first saw the picture of you pregnant and holding the twins I didn’t see of any of the things that made you want to toss the picture. I just saw a pregnant mom with her two babies, right before they weren’t the babies anymore.
You are always your own worst critic, I do the same things when I look a pictures of me and Boo.
Oh, and I love the owies on the face before picture time. Boo was in a wedding Saturday and had fallen and bit her lip and it was huge!
GO SWISTLE! Can you believe you survived?! You are awesome! And Henry is so big! I, too, remember when we were all waiting for Henry to be born. Thanks for sharing him with us all =)!
Awww… happy birthday to Henry.
I agree with you – Henry is a “blog baby”. I think I found your blog initially when someone else linked to your newborn announcement post about Henry. He’s such a cutie!
Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. Henry is FOUR?! That’s just not possible. HE IS STILL A BABY! WHERE DID THE BABY GO?!
Four! How exciting! Happy birthday, Henry.
And that little newborn photo made me die a thousand times over. SO. ADORABLE. You have the cutest babies!!
You baked cakes two weeks after a c-section? I had a c-section 16 months ago and I’m still not able (willing) to do most domestic stuff. You’re like super-woman! Happy Birthday Henry!
I have the same feeling about my youngest who is almost 2. On the one hand, I can’t wait to be done with the toddler phase – physically intense, emotionally exhausting, etc. and on the other hand, MY BABY is GROWING UP. Sometimes the emotional whipsawing of parenthood seems likely to just do me in.
I HEAR YOU. I feel this exact same way re: Caboose baby. Light at the end of the tunnel relief and so so so heart achingly sad at “no more babies.” Ug. Crying.
Happy birthday to Henry!
I am SO GLAD you didn’t erase that picture. What a great moment captured! When I first saw it I thought what a great picture it was, and how beautiful and happy you looked. I didn’t see ANYTHING you pointed out!
And Happy Birthday, Henry!
And also, Newborn Henry HOLY COW. He ALREADY looks like an impish little charmer. *pinch pinch pinch*
I remember starting to follow your blog because Sundry mentioned a “Swistle watch” going on on her blog, she was so excited about Henry’s impending birth and so, so was I.
I can’t believe he’s four!
And I’ll have you know I was doing just fine until I got to the end of your post and saw “no more this”. SO CUTE. He looks like he’s saying “S’up?”
Happy Birthday!
Oh, HENRY. I love Henry, I think mainly because I found out I was pregnant with Eli while you were pregnant with Henry, and I remember when you finally had him thinking, “Holy crap! Look at that little blinky, tender skinned newborn! I have one of those in my belly RIGHT NOW!”
I think he may have been one of the first blog babies I was aware of right from the pregnancy announcement, so, soft spot. Plus, you know, he’s so CHEEKY and ADORABLE. And, I sense, MISCHIEVIOUS. Much like my own blinky, tender skinned newborn who will be four the end of August. Happy birthday to you BOTH, for I always think birthdays are probably more meaningful for moms than kids, at least in early life.
Aww, happy 4th birthday! I LOVE that last photo. I know what you mean about a caboose baby. My youngest just turned six. SIX! Can you believe it? I also have absolutely NO recollection of about a year of my life. Lots of little kids is hard. :)
I’m six months ahead of you in this and feel such the same way as you. I love to read what you have written about wanting the 6th baby, the V, the grief/sadness. I’m living that, too.
I look at my 4 year old and see how she is growing up. Sniff!
Happy Birthday Blog Baby! :)
Oh you were pregnant with Henry when I found you! How nostalgic. I remember waiting for your post-hospital post to hit my reader and the fact that it was 4 years ago kind of blows my mind. A very happy birthday to your Henry.
How smooshable is he in those pjs? I can’t look at pictures of myself right after they’re taken. After time passes I wonder what I was so aghast at (most of the time), and then I’m glad I didn’t destroy it.
Happy birthday Henry! And on the contrary, I think you look lovely in those pictures. I wouldn’t even have NOTICED that clenched hand had you not brought it up! Hey, my word verification is erotc!
Aw! Baaaaby Henryyyyyy!
Oh, MAN.
Every year around this time, I remember how close we were to delivering at the same time.
What a cute, cute, caboose you have.
AHAHAHAHAAAAA! That sounds all wrong.
Happy Birthday Henry!
That bittersweet-caboose feeling. I guess it never goes away. My baby is 2, and my heart REALLY wants another one, but my head and my wallet cannot fathom a 4th child.
And oh my goodness, the diaper on him in that last picture. I almost cannot stand the cuteness.
oh man, this post made a lump in my throat. i was pregnant with my oldest when you were pregnant with henry and i remember literally thanking the universe that i found your blog because here you were, just a month ahead of me and all! your! experience! oh thank goodness i found you because your posts on postpartum-ness and baby-food-making and so many other ones really saved my ass. and THEN all the comments of people saying basically the SAME thing? heart-swelling.
My little #3 baby turned 4 on Sunday. And y #4 caboose turned 2 on 5/16. I mostly think to myself HELL YEAH about the caboose. But then I see a little little tiny baby or a video surrounding a birth, and I think, “I can’t BELIEVE that will never be me again.” Mostly I think I just enjoy the excitement surrounding the new baby, and the almost crushing desire to meet him/her.
I cannot believe he’s 4 years old already… that means I’ve been blogging for over 4 years, because I started right before he was born (though I’d been a blog reader for a long, long time before that). (I should really pay more attention to blog anniversaries.)
Anyway, I love the concept of a caboose child…
i can’t believe you didn’t put a trigger warning on here!! my ovaries are screaming! ;)
I wish I had pics of me pregnant with @devivo and @chicagoleah– just to be able to process my hugeness– they were 10lbs and 8’12” and I was gargantuan and self-conscious–a;so wsa told not having twins just overeating (by my ob)