Happy Second Birthday Baby Boy!!

It is so hard for me to conceptualize that two years have passed since Jonathan was born. When else can one pinpoint the exact time their life changed forever? I have been fortunate to have some incredible things happen in my life, but on July 2, 2005 at 2:43 p.m. at Norton Suburban Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, Jonathan Davis Fantoni was born and it was nothing short of amazing. At that exact moment, my entire life changed direction and I could not have hoped for it to have been better.

Weighing in at a whopping five pounds, thirteen ounces and measuring eighteen inches, Jonathan was impatient to arrive into the world as he made his entrance seventeen days ahead of schedule. That lack of patience continues with us today...



After less than forty-eight hours in the hospital, they actually let Bryan and I drive away from the hospital WITH THE BABY on July 4. Seriously, what where the doctors and nurses thinking? I felt nothing short of freaked out, particularly when my mom and dad headed back to WV later that afternoon, leaving Bryan and I alone WITH THE BABY. It seemed so odd at the time that this was the start of us not just as a couple but as a family. Here is a picture of us taken during our first week as new parents:



The last two years have passed in an unbelievable whirlwind, filled with all of Jonathan's firsts: bath, smile, tooth, words, steps. At each point along the way, I am amazed at how is morphing from an infant to a baby to a little boy. I constantly think it would be impossible for it to get better, but then it does and I am amazed all all over again. The baby I carried with me for (not quite) nine months now runs every where we go, is always sticky and picks up new words like "herpes" from television commercials. It is interesting to me how watching your child grow up makes you feel happy, sad, sentiment and pride all at the same time.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last two years. This first one is one of the first smiles I was able to catch on film. He was about three and a half months at the time:



This was his first Easter. I just love the expression on his face here:



Here is the first time he used the baby pool, the beginning of what would become "nakey outdoor bath time":



Happy as a clam at almost 14 months:



And the results of a Daddy and son bath time collaboration:



It seems like just yesterday that he needed us to do everything for him, but now Jonathan is a boisterous little boy!



And today, on the day of his second birthday:



So Happy Birthday Jonathan!! May you continue to grow and thrive and develop into one of the most amazing people I have ever met. May your life be filled with sunshine and happiness. May you formulate dreams and see them fulfilled. And may you live your life with the knowledge that your mother loves you with all of her heart.