11 Years (-3 days)

Okay, so I'm a little late! MSN turned 11 on the 4th and we are well into our birthday party month.

MSN made us wait for his arrival. I was pretty sure that I would deliver early because his older brother came early...but no...he made us wait until he was ready - and he's done so ever since! My due date was the 3rd of March and I waited and waited all day but nothing was happening. Later in the afternoon I was finally feeling something going on. I started timing the contractions but nothing was regular and it wasn't very painful - just "tightening". At around 8:00 I decided we should call Bonnie (yes, the same guardian angel that helped us with Dani) and see if we could drop off X-Man for the night because we were pretty sure we were going to end up in the hospital. When Spot got back from taking him we timed a few more "contractions" and then at around 10:00 decided that we should go to the hospital and see if anything was happening. When we got to the hospital I was 5cm dialated and so they decided to keep me and put me on petocin (sp?). They called our beloved Dr. Ward. He arrived a little while later - he'd been at a basketball game in Toronto that night and was just getting home when they called. He said we'd be a while so he was going to get some sleep and the nurse could call him when he was needed again. I walked around a quiet hospital, back and forth, back and forth trying to get something moving. Spot tried to get some sleep on the sofa in the "family room". It was a long night! Finally at around 4:00 things started moving. Dr. Ward came in and broke my water and a couple of pushes later MSN shot out. I say "shot" out because Dr. Ward said he almost didn't catch him he came so fast! It was a beautiful boy! We were so pleased and excited that X-Man would have a little brother.

We should have known then that MSN would make us wait for him. We ask, we beg, we plead, and just when we're ready to move on or leave he decides he's ready and complies.

He has the best smile! (that's him on the left in the Captian Moroni picture)

He has a big heart and is probably one of our most compassionate kids. He is a great helper in school with an autistic boy they have in his class. He has a special connection with him. He loves animals and anything to do with nature. He will probably be a biologist or something along that line. Right now he has 5 fish and a cat - his frog died last month. He would have many more animals if he had his way.

MSN is good at anything he tries. He is a natural athlete and enjoys playing lots of different sports - but is especially fond of football. He loves getting in there and playing - I love to watch him play because you can just see his longing to get that ball or tackle that player that has the ball. (here's a video of him trying out skateboarding - see a previous post of him scoring a touchdown!)

He is an awesome artist and is great with his hands. He can make and draw some amazing things! He constructed a football field for his latest Historica project (which he won and gets to move onto the provincial competition). He also loves video games and enjoys having a game cube in his room even though he'd love something better (we won't let him get an XBox or Playstation). He has an amazing voice but doesn't like to use it for anything other than weird noises or loud "operetic" singing! He's tried being in the church choir but wasn't too impressed when they put him in the soprano section! We encourage him to sing whenever we can. We also got a guitar for Christmas and he's been plucking away at it trying to figure out some chords. We tried piano lessons but he wasn't interested in the practise part of it - he has a little bit of "I want it now" kind of temperment.

He loves going to church and has a pretty strong testimony for being only 11! He just "moved up" to scouts from cubs and is looking forward to that new adventure. (the above picture is MSN with his dad and his grandpa's, he's named after the grandpa on the left and another one of his names is from the grandpa on the right's grandpa)

He is a great brother and very kind to his siblings. He's always had a special place in his heart for his littlest sister Lala and is always willing to help her. He is signed up to take the babysitting course in a couple of weeks - and I'm sure he'll be a great babysitter!

He's our worry wart! He gets worried easily and likes to make sure that everyone is safe and free from harm. When we get terrible wind storms he doesn't get much sleep because he's worried the whole time that something terrible will happen to our house. For the longest time - when he was younger - he would come to us and say that he's scared about turning 9 because he's going to go blind. He's well past that age but he still worries about things that might happen. Needless to say, we had to have him tested for an ulcer earlier this year. He has ulcer medication and takes it occasionally when the pain comes back - which is usually accompanied by worry. We are trying to teach him the saying "come what may" and know that he can deal with anything that comes his way!

I can't believe it's been 11 years since he's come into our family. We are so grateful that he is a part of us. We sure do love you MSN and hope that this year is the best one yet!