William Lewis

 Seven years ago....I was under the knife. 

 Having my 3rd c-section. 

 Awww....I remember when I found out (with ultrasound) I was having a 2nd son...I cried.  I wanted a sister for Isabella worse than a brother for Jack.  And now...I see ONCE AGAIN how much better God knew what I needed then I knew myself.  As soon as William was born I was in LOVE.  He was such a content little baby.  I remember putting him down for a nap when we got home our first week together and he would fuss just a little bit until I got to the door, and quietly put himself to sleep. WHAT??? Amazing.

 Isabella was 3, almost 4....and she sure did love being a mama.  It was like a live baby doll for her.  Isabella was eager to please, happy to help.  My transition to 3 was smooth sailing compared to when we brought #2 home.  It seemed like we were always soothing or holding someone who needed attention, two years earlier.  So I was shocked to see my days although busy, easy.....since Isabella entertained Jack while I took care of this little honey.

 Before I knew it we were building a house, living in a basement apartment and celebrating William's 1st birthday.  HOW TIME flew!

 The next year we were settled into our house, I was pregnant with #4 and William turned 2!!  During that phase he loved tractors.

 At 3 William was into monkeys!! 

 At 4 he loved the Cars movie and I did a race track "4" for him.

 Pie for 5. 

Oh my goodness....at the time William turned 6 we had moved another 3 times.  But were settled in for 4 months. (I'm sinking my roots in here...folks) William was in the middle of his kindergarten year and enjoyed full days of school. 

William Lewis, you are pure joy.  I love how you love people, love to please, and look for ways to be a help to me and others.  I love your enthusasim about life and how  you love to jam and dance.  You crack us UP!
You have a very tender heart towards Jesus, and I love your questions about God, Jesus, and heaven.  You make me think when you ask all your thoughtful questions.
You have been talking about a DSI for over a year, dreaming, making paper DSs' and pretending to play on one for the last few months.  You've worked hard and saved all your birthday money (from last year and this year), Christmas gifts of cash, and allowance....making yourself practice so much discipline to not waste it......and today it was very exciting to go with you to Target and split the cost of one with you.  I wish I would've thought to take a picture of the pride & excitement on your face inside the store.  :)  It's so fun to see you share this exciting toy with your brother and to see all your hard work of saving pay off.
I love you William~you are a gift I treasure every day.  Love, Mom

William Lewis

What I was doing 5 years ago today......having a wonderful c-section. Welcoming our 3rd baby into this world. See them pulling back on my tummy to get him out? Pretty cool...eh?

William Lewis

April 22, 2004

8:02 a.m.

8 lbs. 13 oz.

21 inches long

We named William for my Grandpa who was named after his dad.

My Great Grandpa...isn't he handsome?

And these are my maternal grandparents.

Isabella was 3 years old & Jack was 1 year old. It was so awesome to see the look on their faces when they met their new baby brother for the first time. Looking back on these pictures...I'm wondering how did we do that....3 that were 3 and under??? O.k. well I know how we did it...Just how did we manage the day to day?? Maybe that's why the nurses kept looking at me funny.Loved packing him up in his car seat for the first time...to take him home.

Ohhh...the power of pictures. I can almost smell this little pumpkin looking back over pictures of him. I would love to squeeze this little William at this stage just one more time. Yummy!!! He was such a good, good baby. I remember being amazed at how fast he would fall asleep. We would lay him down in his crib and he would fall asleep usually before we got to the door. He was so laid back even as a small newborn. I was shocked since neither of our first 2 children were like that. William is still my most contented child.

Wow....fast forward one year...

...and this is what we were doing. Already one year later, how did time fly so fast? We celebrated William's birthday in our basement apartment we were renting while our house was being built.


And then another year flew by....

and he is in love with tractors. Loves them!!!

William my handsome 3 year old.

Oh my goodness here comes 4 years old!!!

and here comes 5.

Last night my sister came over to bring William a gift...since we have small group tonight. We made a little celebration with chocolate pie. William's favorite.

I'm so blessed to be this little boy's mama. He is a bright spot in my day. I love his cheerfulness, and helpful spirit. He is often looking for ways to help me. I can remember one day a while back when I told him to get ready to go to the grocery store and he got his shoes on and then went and got mine...and lined them up right in front of me so I could easily slide them on. He loves to please. This week Suzy was helping me carry up frozen hamburger from the basement and when she got up here her hands were very cold. She was fussing and complaining. I was busy with something else....but when I turned around there was William with her one cold hand in the two of his warming her hand up for her. He was asking her, "Is that better Suzy? Are your hands warm now?" I wish I would've gotten a picture. William reminds me so much of his dad. He is so delightful. He loves to learn and is a self teacher. He just keeps working at something until he learns/memorizes it. Isabella and Jack have been teaching him addition, and he gets it. He really gets it...I can't believe it. So last night Jack and William were doing addition flash cards. And blow me over William beat Jack on some of them!!! What a guy. Neither of my oldest caught on to math that quickly.

Here is a quote from William while we were in the van headed into Goshen.

William: "Hey, this is the way we go to the baby shop."

Me: "the what?"

William: "the place where you get the baby out of your tummy.

Me: "Ohhh...The hospital."

William: "Yeah, the hospital."