Time, time, time. Slow Down please.

We have been parents for 5 years. 5 years ago our lives changed forever. Love, fear, joy, pride, exhaustion, fullness in ways never felt before. Birthday #5 for our baby boy has hit us harder than expected. Who thought 5 would mean he's grown up? I was emotional just watching my kids all day on the 17th.

If you haven't gotten the privilege of getting to know Taj here's a taste of what you're missing...

He's such a sweet kid with a truly kind heart. We hear this from people all the time. They can't get over how sweet & patient he is with younger kids. He has more energy than anyone could imagine, but he mostly keeps it to running, big wheeling, scootering. He is crazy organized. Everything from his books to his cars to the way he plays is planned out & set to a T. Unfortunately his little sister sees this as a weakness & loves to frustrate him by throwing in curve balls. But undisturbed, he will sit & play quietly for hours by himself with his cars. He is just so sweet & caring to his little sister. He is a big wuss. It's actually extremely amusing when he runs around screaming hysterically like a little girl because of lady bugs or a fly. He loves watching nature shows about animals & memorizing all the facts for random use later. He has a crazy memory & sense of direction. He is a sensitive little soul, but tries not to show it by sucking it up with a quivering lip. He loves, loves to learn & soaks it up like nothing I've ever seen. He is constantly curious figuring out things. He wants to know how it all works. He hates to be bothered with the mundane things in life like eating, sleeping, getting dressed, going to the bathroom. He would much rather just play until he dies. This little man is truly an amazing little human that we feel so lucky to have & love beyond words. He makes our hearts big.

You can tell Taj is always thinking & trying to figure things out, but we don't often get to hear what's going on during those deep thoughts. So here are a couple of recent ones we got...

"I know when you eat, you go poop. I know when you drink, you go pee. But do you see the problem mom? What happens when you toot?"

"Dad I didn't know you had a jagger bike" -a word for cool he invented

"He wasn't enough of a jokester" -on not having a "connection" with another kid

Every night he tells me something he loves me more than. Recently it has been more than all the sand, all the grass, all the beach balls, all the spider legs (which I might add gave him nightmares afterwards).

And the official, just because she's cute section...