Lincoln: Four Months

Four Months

March 2015

Little Buddy,

I can't believe you're four months old.

I can't.

I know that I'll probably say this with every month and every year that passes, but you grow up so fast.

But you really do.

This month you are busting into the six to nine month clothes. It is ridiculous the way your feet stretch the little bottoms of the footie pajamas. You have more rolls than a sushi bar and every one of them at some point in time has been filled with lint. I don't know how, it just happens.

At your four month check up I asked the doctor about the red skin under your neck. He informed me that it's what they call "fat baby neck rash" or in other words it's when slobber gets stuck in your chin rolls and can't get out. It's true, Little Buddy, you're growing.

You weigh seventeen pounds and you're so strong. You have the best smiles in the entire world and you look so proud of yourself when mommy or daddy helps you 'stand up tall.'  You still wear Size 2 diapers at night but I'm pretty sure if we had any Size 3 that those would fit much better. You wear cloth diapers during the day and someday you'll either think your parents were crazy or cool for that.

Your friend Max was over the other night and you and Daddy were playing. That's when you had your first laugh. I stepped out of the room for only a moment, but rushed back in when I heard. Little Buddy you have the very best laugh. Even if you do give yourself the hiccups every time you try to laugh, and then get frustrated because the hiccups won't go away.

Technically, we didn't know this the day you turned four months old, but I'm writing this a few days later: You don't have VLCAD.

Forever you'll have a tiny scar on your left forearm to remind you of the testing and the poking and the prayers. Forever, I'm sure, we'll tell the story of how your saints of a mother and father woke you at all hours of the night to feed you. I'm sure at every birthday we'll draw out the story and make sure you know how much we really did love you from the start. But I do hope I remember and am always grateful of how healthy you are. I won't easily forget the tears I cried and the prayers I prayed over you. I won't easily forget the relief when we found out you were just a carrier of VLCAD.

I pray that there are lots of stories. I pray that there are many more to come. I pray that there will be trials and triumphs that will draw you nearer to the Lord every day. I pray that you grow up to tell the stories of the Lord's faithfulness in so many areas of your life. I pray that you know the Lord loves you.

I do. I love you.

You and your neck rolls and your three chins and your hiccup laugh.

I love you, all of you, even your one VLCAD gene and all the sleep it cost me,

Mom