My Precious Boy

Today is my baby's 5th birthday. How can this be? It seems like only yesterday, he was born! I often say that if Roan had been the first, he'd have been the only! He has been an interesting boy to raise, but our family would not have been complete without him!

Some things about my little guy that I love &/or don't want to forget:

• He nearly killed me when he was born. He was huge and was presenting forehead first. We ended up with a c-section, which was NOT part of the plan! We found out later that his chest was almost an inch bigger around than his head...he never would have come out the 'right' way!
• When he was born, he had bright ORANGE hair and blue eyes. I remember thinking "Please Lord, let his hair change!"
• Ted and I liked the names Riley, Evan and Roan. We chose Roan for a couple of reasons. Ted has a long-ago grandfather named Roanoke. My family came from Europe and settled in Roane County TN. He was born with bright red hair and the word 'roan' is Celtic for red. So, we knew immediately that Roan was the name for him. I do wish we had avoided the Celtic spelling and spelled it 'Rowan'; it gets mispronounced and misspelled a lot.
• He has two middle names... Roan James Michael. James after several family members, namely, my Grandpa, Claude James Jones. Roan is Grandpa Jones dead over, so it fits him well!
• He rolled over at 3 days old. No kidding. He sat up at around 4 months, crawled at 5 months, walked at 9 months. He was a handful to keep up with, to say the least.
• On Libby's second birthday, he stopped sleeping. He never slept more than an hour at at time for an entire year. I thought I would die.
• Libby didn't talk until she was past 2; she signed instead. Because of this, I didn't teach Roan much sign. He spoke on time, but had serious articulation errors. Until this last year or so, no one could understand him, but me. Thank God for speech therapy!
• Roan is, and always has been, a momma's boy. Part of me loves it, part of me doesn't...he can be a little overwhelming!
• He is a recovering dress-lover. See previous posts for incriminating pictures.
• He is a ladies' man. He currently has two girlfriends, and a crush another "older woman" who won't give him the time of day!
• Roan has the sweetest spirit. He is incredibly empathic for such a small child. He cries when he sees homeless people and worries if he sees stray animals in the neighborhood.
• Although life with him hasn't always been easy, I love this boy with my whole soul. I hope I raise him to be a loving, Godly, respectful, strong man.

Happy Birthday, my sweet boy!