A Year of Thomas Kirby McKevitt

A year with Mr. Thomas!

It's been a crazy year. For the most part, it was beautiful and wonderful and full of love - I had no idea how much my heart would grow in the weeks to come when I was handed that wrinkly newborn in the hospital.  Love at first sight? Sure. But that deep, bonding attachment took a few weeks - Thomas and I needed to get to know each other.  But now? This baby melts my heart on a daily basis.

We're having a big party for Thomas tomorrow. I was anti-first birthday parties in general, but he's survived a lot in his first year of life. And B and I have, too. I think that all three of us have come out of this first year as stronger, better people with deep faiths to carry us through some harder times, an astounding amount of risilience - Thomas especially - and the knowledge that we have family members and friends who have dropped everything to help us out.  And for that, we're throwing a party!

He's our serious little man. His big name fits him to a T - we call him Tommy occasionally as a nickname when we're playing, but he's a Thomas or a Tom through and through. I love to watch him observe the world - lately he's fascinated by the buckle on his carseat and will study it as we haul him in and out of the car. He's constantly watching wheels turn on things, trying to figure out how things work. I have a feeling he's an old soul. And it's an enchanting soul.

Thomas is favoring verbal and social development over gross motor development. Apparently Mr. B was similar. I, on the other hand, favored bossing my older siblings around with ear shattering shrieks while they did all of my verbal, social and gross motor development on my behalf. So we feel like Thomas has a leg up on me. He talks all the time: "yes", "that", "all done", "Dada", "Caco", random strings of consonants and vowels as he points at things that we like to pretend are words - and "Mama" if he's crying. He's in physical therapy so that we can work on his gross motor skills. But two nights ago he decided to give that traditional crawling thing (as opposed to scooting or army crawling) a go, and he did great. And then, last night, B took his hands away from Thomas as he was cruising and he just kept going (and then fell in style). So apparently he's going to be fine.

We love this little ball of personality and energy with all of our hearts. And we're so looking forward to seeing all that he'll accomplish in his second year of life.  Happy Birthday, Thomas Kirby!