Wendi {at random}

Today at 1:27 I thought about where I was nine years ago at that very moment.

Far away in a hospital in Virginia, my eyes were straining to focus on a Diet Pepsi. My epidural was dripping into my happy-at-last back. I could feel nothing so I had to wait for the nurses to tell me when to push. They only had to tell me twice. 

And then there he was. Camden Neil. 

My own little Jedi was born. He was a little bundle of just under 7 pounds. He cried. I cried. He was hungry. So was I. I ate a hospital tray of cardboard food while he fussily tried for Mommy milk. That night he pooped while he was in the room with me. I thought I'd be a knowledgable new mom and change his diaper all by myself. Long story short: I had to call for the nurse who taught me the ins and outs of baby butt wiping and have clean sheets put on my bed. Camden's was my first diaper change. I don't count the time I had to ask for help doing one when I mistakenly signed up for nursery duty in church once. I never did that again. 

 

Today he is a 62 pound string bean who looks more and more like his father every day. He's blessed to have his dad's handsome good looks. I pray one day he'll have his dad's gentle, patient disposition. Right now he's saddled with my uptight impatient tendencies. 

Here's a shot of Camden's new broken finger. He got it slammed in a door after school on Thursday. They interrupted the faculty meeting to get me. He was crying so hard. The finger was blue and bloody and looked crushed. We wound up at Children's Hospital where a plastic surgeon had to reset the bone and put two sutures in the finger. 

And Camden was the bravest kid I know. It would have taken 10 nurses to hold me down when they numbed his finger. Not Camden. I know God's angels were right there with him because this child of mine, this amazing little boy who's also a big boy, started giggling as the doctor e-v-e-r so s-l-o-w-l-y injected the numbing medicine into the space between his pointer and middle fingers. The more the doctor wiggled the needle around, the more Camden laughed. What's up with that?  And when the doctor manipulated the bone back into place, my son just jabbered away. He wasn't necessarily quiet, in spite of the late hour. (We got to Children's at 7 p.m and left there around 12:45 a.m.) 

He goes back for a follow-up appointment tomorrow where new X-rays will be shot and the surgeon will determine if he needs surgery. If the bone's still right where it's supposed to be, then he's good to go. Of course, I've banned any sparring in this house for the immediate future. 

Happy birthday, my sweet boy. I love you to the moon and back and to infinity and beyond and back and more than that.