Patrick,

I have a lot of pictures that I want to add to this little blog of ours; pictures of our daily activities, but for the moment I want to tell you how great it is to be your mom.  This week(May 6th), you told me you loved me for the first time.  My heart melted.  I had just gotten you out of bed for the morning and it seemed like, for a few minutes, you wanted nothing more than to cuddle with me in the rocking chair.  We had a busy day ahead of us but for those few minutes, it was just you and me, and there was nothing in the world I would have rather been doing than cuddling with you and telling you how much I love you.  I love moments like those.  It seems like this week I've had a lot of moments where I look at you and think how lucky I am that you changed our world.  I had one of those moments today when we were at the park and I saw how cute you were with the other kids.  I loved that you made a little "girlfriend" and even grabbed her hand so you could hold it till you both got to the stairs that led to the slide.  I love your little giggle and big grin as you take off outside, yelling "run!" "run!" like you've been waiting all day for that moment when I finally let you free to run off some energy.  I love that at random times of the day you'll turn to me and say, "happy" just to let me know you're happy and having fun.  I also love that you like to hear me sing and even asked for me to sing to you in the car today.  I can never say no to you when you look at me with those big blue eyes and say, "pwease?"   I love watching you grow but sometimes I wish I could just push pause on life and keep you at this age for a little longer.  I wish I could keep you safe from all the pain this earth life will throw at you but I can't.  But, I hope you always know how much your dad and I love you.  You mean the world to us and I'm seeing just how fleeting our time is at having you as our little boy.

Love you forever, bud
Mom