Ode to the Boy

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a woman, her husband, and their sweet little daughter. One day the woman became 8 months pregnant, with a sweet little boy. After 37 weeks of pregnancy she decided she was good, and had enough. So, one sunny October Sunday, she woke up, went to church, and starting feeling little pangs in her ginourmous belly. Every 10 minutes all through church, not stopping, but not getting closer together either. So, she decided to take matters into her own hands. After church, she made the family gather together on the living room couch, still in their Sunday best, and take the obligatory "before" picture. Then she changed her clothes, loaded the sweet little, not quite 2 year old, girl in the stroller, left the husband home to watch football (of course), and went for a walk. Not just any walk. She decided she would walk to her mother's house. The woman's mother live 3 miles east. To make the trek the woman would have to brave the busy main road that ran East in her beloved home town of Layton. On this road was the dreaded "dip." With a steep decline, and immediately another much steeper incline on the other side. As the woman trudged along the daunting hill, the pains became harder, and more frequent. "Good" she thought, "this is working just fine. And now I have a route to go for losing the after baby weight!"
Ok, short story long, she made it to her Mom's, and with contractions 5 minutes apart, she called her hubby to take her to the hospital.....
(sorry, that story idea was getting old)

T. J. Shepherd was born on Sunday, October 19, 2003 at 9:53 p.m.
He weighed 7 lb 5 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long (and yes, I am grabbing all this info from memory, so don't quote me on the stats) I'm pretty sure I have the date right, though.

Let me tell you a little bit about my boy. His nickname was "the boy" from the start, seeing as how he was....the boy. Later it was shortened to just "boy". He was a very big, fat, beautiful baby boy, and so, he's also been dubbed "fat guy" by his loving father. He has since lost all that baby fat, but still gets called "fat guy" by his dad.

Five things I love about my boy.

1) He is the most loving little sweet heart EVER. Several times a day, he'll come up to me, at random, for no reason, and just say "I love you Mom" and give me a hug. I love his little hugs.

2) I love that when he's excited to tell me something, he starts talking really fast, and he can't seem to stop talking to breath. He sucks in his words with his breath, and just keeps going. I can't describe it, or duplicate it (I don't know how he does it), but it is the cutest thing.
For example, this morning he came in to my room to wake me up and said, "Mom! Today's my birthday! I'm 5 now! I sang Happy Birthday to myself in my bed. Look at my feet! They're bigger! And I'm taller, too, Cuz now I'm five. Can I have five rotten (boiled) eggs for breakfast? Hey Dad!....."
Imagine him saying all that in one breath.

3) He has a deep love for life. He's simple, and it doesn't take much to entertain him or make him happy. He's a sweet big brother to his little sister, Peter, and tries his hardest to get along with his big sister, KJ.

4) TJ marches to the beat of his own drum. He always has. He does things his way, and some people might think he's naughty, but I love his personality, and flare that he has.

5) I love that when I praise him, or pay his a compliment, he grins, and nods his head in agreement. I feel like he is rewarding me for praising him, by showing me how good it makes him feel.

I LOVE YOU TJ! HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY!!!

Here is TJ, one day old, on his Spider man chair, that uncle Josh & Aunt Stacie gave him. He still has that chair.

4 Generations: TJ, Clint, his Dad-Grandpa Jim, and Grandpa Salisbury (C's maternal grandpa)

TJ in his blessing suit. So handsome. One month old.

Our Family, December 2003