Up a Tree!

Yesterday was Clay's birthday, so he pretty much got to do what he wanted.  I can't imagine telling my child no on their special day! : )  He'd already eaten out (PF Changs) on Sunday, but he'd told me he wanted breakfast dinner (specifically: eggs, toast, bacon, and pancakes), and some pomegranates for his after-school snack.  I'd shopped and gotten all of the above, and after school he'd asked to go to Jacob's house (his best friend's).  Gigi and Papa stopped by-and we called Clay to come home-just in time to see the other two up a tree!

I have to tell you, I didn't realize we had a tree that was climbable.  We have some trees on our lot (that have survived the ice storms), but their low limbs are all cut.  They just aren't climbers.  We've planted about a hundred trees on our lot since we moved here (I think our count is around 96, but 4 have been replanted after they've died, and two just fell last week).  So, really over a hundred planted.  Anyway, all this to say that in the five+ years since we've lived here, I can't believe we have a tree large enough to climb (and support my kids!).  But.  Leave it to a sycamore to grow like no one's business!  We learned this early, so now we have a few.  They are awesome fast growers, they have H-U-G-E leaves (great for shade so plant them on the south/west sides!), beautiful peel-y bark, and a great shape-especially if you get one with multiple trunks.  Once you have one, sometimes you get new baby trees, and we plant them in other places.  Even oaks don't always make it through a transplant, but by-golly, a sycamore does!  So..my kids have been climbing one of them.  Not the biggest one, and it's only been there for four years (and began as a stick-seriously)!  Anyway, the kids need a little help getting started, but then, watch out!

I just kept telling him, "No Higher!!"

A farther-away view (the fence is 6 foot high)!

She has really gotten better at pictures!  Love this one.

Sweet kids.  I have the best memories of a great climber at my grandma's house.  We would practically live there! (and pick crab apples, and drop flowers down, and we had a cousins' club..)

..and Clay finally got back!

Sweet girl.

We stayed out in the amazing decent weather till my eyes were getting dizzy from staring straight up in the sky watching for falling kids, then inside to check Monday folders!  They both got good grades, but Mary Claire had some not-very-good papers from this past week. : (  She had to work on them, then we started that yummy dinner!

I'm still reading that book (my one hundred adventures) with the kids, so we read till I fell asleep!  Clay wanted to keep going, so we read for over an hour-it was his birthday.

I can't believe ten years ago, I hadn't even gotten to see him yet.  I had gone into the hospital on the Monday after Thanksgiving with preeclampsia, Tuesday I was induced, and I had him on Wednesday, November 29th.  He was only four pounds since he was five weeks early, so he immediately went to the NICU.  He had a blue spell (stopped breathing), so he couldn't leave to come see me.  My heart stopped twice since I was on so much magnesium sulfate to keep me from having seizures or a stroke, so I couldn't leave my room or my monitors.  I remember I finally had them bring me a polaroid picture of him just so I could see him.  I was getting super anxious, as I'd hoped to nurse him.
Ches got a pump for me, but I was getting nowhere.  They'd told me Clay would be fine without eating for the first 24 hours, but I thought that was totally unacceptable!  I kept asking to see him, and finally I had a compassionate nurse that said he was more stable than I was, and she snuck him to me about three in the morning, on the 30th.  It'd been 12 hours, and I finally got to see him!  What precious joy.  I got to nurse him one more time (secretly) that night, and the next morning, my doctor said I could either have a shower or go see my baby (since I couldn't take the stress). I chose to go see him.  He thought he was giving me my first look, and I couldn't tell him. : )
It was a long road, and they released me before him, so we drove to the hospital to feed him for an hour, then we'd leave, and have two hours before we'd come back-for days.  We were losing it, but finally we got the call that he could come home-on a biliblanket.  He had jaundice by then, but we would've done anything at that point to bring him home!  It was late at night, and getting icy, but we were so thankful.  We've told him parts of the story, but it was so scary, to tell him all of it is too much. (maybe for us)
I'm just so thankful for my sweet little boy-I've had ten blessed years with him.  He's given us so much joy, taught us compassion and patience (waiting while in surgeries, and as he learns his boundaries), and taught us to look at the world with curious eyes (I'm just sure he'll never stop learning).  Thank you, God, for the blessing of his precious life!