Happy Birthday, Matthew!

June has been a month of celebrations at our house. First, I turned 43 on the 8th. Gil and I, along with his brother Mitch and his wife Tiffany, had a nice dinner at Mr. Lester's then did a little gambling in the adjacent casino. You'll be happy to know that I ended the night up about $30. Woo-hoo! When we were seated at our table in the restaurant, these flowers from Gil were waiting for me. I was surprised and touched that he thought of it. :)

Father's Day was next. Gil had the weekend off, which is pretty rare for him. I had the boys write these sweet messages to their dad.

Check out Matt's face. He had the bright idea to rub his nose on the carpet over and over to see what would happen. Happily, it's all healed up and looks fine. I don't think he'll be doing that again any time soon!

On the 18th, Matthew turned 7. 7!!! It's crazy, I know. I still see him as my little tiny guy. He's the youngest in the family, the cherished baby. He's the one I prayed would come, even though we pretty much considered our family complete once we had the older 3. God heard the desires of my heart, and I will be forever grateful.

My first three pregnancies were textbook. No problems - big, healthy babies born right on time. With Matthew, everything was different. There were problems from the very start. Ultrasounds, blood tests, amniocentesis x 2 . . . I was an emotional wreck. My water broke at 31 weeks. I was lucky because it was a "slow" leak, and I managed to hold on until 34 weeks. Matthew was born weighing 5 lbs., 3 ounces - not too shabby for being 6 weeks early! He had respiratory distress - common in preemies, but heartbreaking all the same. Matthew spent 11 days in the NICU, and was on a vent for a short while. Long story short, it sucked. Really bad. I was a total mess. Once he got over his respiratory issues, he had trouble regulating his body temperature. When we were finally able to take him home, he weighed 4 pounds, 10 ounces. He didn't smile, roll over, or sit up on time. Right at 8 months, things turned around and by his first birthday, he was walking and doing the typical things that 1 year olds do. Now, he's sharp as a tack! His only remaining issues are asthma, a tendency to get respiratory infections easily, and his size. He's the tiniest kid in class, both boys and girls. Gil and I aren't tall (not even close), so perhaps he was destined to be little. Either way, he makes up for it in personality in a big way. He is a nut, and we have loved every second with him.

Here he is in the NICU. My heart still breaks when I see this picture.

Here he is on his 7th birthday. Such a rascal!

We had cake and ice cream with our family on his birthday, and yesterday Matt had a movie party with lots of his friends. We saw "Monsters University", the Monsters Inc. prequel. It was really cute and they all had a great time. As party favors, I made monster t-shirts. When I say that I made them, I mean me and my SIL, Tiffany. We were some shirt-making machines! I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out monster shapes from the online store onto heat transfer material, ironed them onto t-shirts from Walmart, sewed on a few buttons, and done! We made a total of 20 shirts in about 5 hours. We were accompanied by my two boys, and Tiffany's two, one of whom is an infant, so yeah, we rock!

Here's a shot of the kids in their shirts before the movie started.

It was a happy day!