Happy 3rd Birthday Holden!

Dear Holden,

Happy birthday! It’s hard to imagine that three years have passed since we first met. It’s been an amazing three years – full of ups and downs but every minute has been worth it. We’ve watched you grow and mature into the sweetest little boy I’ve ever known. We’ve seen you learn to walk and talk; we’ve watched you fall in love with your sisters, and make friends, and witnessed you figuring out how to tell a joke or do something cute to make everyone around you laugh. We’ve held you as you’ve cried, sighed in frustration as you’ve thrown temper tantrums, and tended to you when you were sick. We’ve taken you to countless appointments at the ear nose and throat specialist, and the pediatric asthma clinic, and been there as you recovered from your first (and hopefully only!) surgery.

Every day you change and grow a bit more – come up with new words, tell new jokes, make new observations (grow out of your shoes or your pants or your socks…). And every day we feel blessed that you have completed our family. I said it in your birth story, and it’s something I think about often: You are everything that we never knew we always wanted. We never envisioned being a family of five, and couldn’t really picture what it would be like to have a little boy running around. But when you burst onto the scene, you captured everyone’s hearts. Your smile, your dimples, your curly hair, you impish little voice. You are sweet and funny and cuddly and loving and mellow and mischievous, all rolled in to one adorable package.

You still LOVE cars (and trucks and trains and fire trucks and garbage trucks and police cars and motorcycles) and anything Lego. You love Star Wars action figures (thanks Daddy) and think that anything Paw Patrol is like striking gold. You love dinosaurs and dragons and playing with bikes. You love snuggling and ‘reading’ us bedtime stories and playing with the cat. You absolutely adore your big sisters, and even tell Mercedes regularly that she is your best friend. You like telling us all about your days at daycare (which friends you played with, what games you played) and anything Spiderman.

In short, you are a very typical, but wonderful little boy, and one that we could never imagine our lives without. Thank you for bringing so much joy to our family Holden John. We are all better people for it.

Love,

Mama