Orion turns 1

  The light from the nearly full moon streaming through the bedroom window, illuminates the room with a pale glow that falls gently upon the face of my littlest man. He is breathing softly as he sleeps. His eyelids reveal the movement of his wandering, dreaming eyes underneath. His features are outlined by the moon glow. They are soft, subtle, and peaceful, yet they reveal little about his personality when he is awake, save it for his extraordinary sweet nature. Orion has one little arm extended up over his head with his fist loosely clenched, his other had rest upon his belly.

  It has been one year since I first heard Orion’s voice, laid my eyes upon his perfect little face, and held him in my arms for the first time.  I was filled with joy and pride. His pale blue eyes pierced my heart when he looked at me. I wondered who he would become, what kind of personality he would have, and how he would affect our lives. A year later and all I can say is that I could not have guessed anything about his personality correctly, except for the fact that he would be loud. In fact, my first impression of him when I heard his first cry was, “Wow! This kid is loud!”

  Orion is a virtual whirlwind, leaving chaos and destruction behind him where ever he goes. He gets into everything…EVERYTHING!! We have resorted to closing off rooms, using baby gates to limit his access to parts of the house, installing child proof cabinet latches, and training ourselves not to leave anything on the edge of the counters. Each day presents a new challenge for us as Orion develops new skill sets. He has now started climbing on chairs and buckets to reach more of the counters. The buckets we keep in our kitchen have flour, rice, or sugar in them. Apollo uses them to stand on to help with the dishes or to help cook. Orion has discovered that he can climb on them too, and reach more items on the counters. Everything is then thrown on the floor. Drinks are always a prized treasure for Orion, and we are usually alerted to the fact that he is standing on a bucket in the kitchen, when we hear his shrill scream as cold water and ice douse his little body and then splash onto the floor. He seems to get drenched at least once a day from finding an abandoned drink.

  Orion’s hands and feet start moving the moment his eyes open. He moves constantly and is always looking for new stimulation. He will even attempt to fight off sleep by shaking his head wildly from side to side while while screaming! Orion loves to scream and is very proficient at it. He screams when he is happy, sad, bored, hungry, tiered, playing, protesting, walking…if he is awake, he is usually screaming. Our next door neighbor summed it up best; “ I can always tell when you guys are home and when you are gone. I can hear your baby screaming 24-hours a day.”   We are trying our best to help Orion find his words now in hopes that talking will reduce the amount of screaming. Besides “mama”, “dada”, and “no, no” he is mumbling “I want this.” It’s a start.

  In spite of the screaming and mass destruction, Orion is an amazingly fun baby. He is always smiling and laughing (between screams, of course). He loves to be chased and squeals in delight while running and giggling. He is adventurous and inquisitive. He loves to wrestle, rough house, and bang things together to make noise. He is quick to give hugs and kisses, and will always greet you with a smile.

 In his first year, Orion has turned our home upside down, deprived us of sleep, kept us on our toes,  captured our hearts, made us laugh, made us cry, and has brought a whole new level of joy to our home.  I will take the screaming and destruction any day as payment for having this wonderful little soul in our lives.

  Orion, you have doubled my capacity for love. Your sweetness, sense of adventure, and playful nature has made my life a whole lot better. Your smile lightens up the whole room as well as my life. I am proud to call you my son.

Happy Birthday son. I love you.