Peanut's Month

Peanut -

Today is the first day of September.  This month will always be Peanut's Month.  Your birthday is in 12 days...you should be turning three this year.

Three years ago we welcomed you into this world with delight and big dreams.  Momma discovered her heart, and the meaning of Momma love.

Two years ago we celebrated your first birthday with an Elmo themed party and loads of gifts you were meant to grow into over the coming years.  You had just transitioned to a sippy cup, real milk, and big boy meals at school.  Everything was clicking in place, you had discovered words, laughter and a wicked sense of humor, and Momma began to see the little man - the little personality - that was so perfectly Peanut.

One year ago we gathered with family and friends the weekend before your birthday to remember and celebrate your very big but too short life.  We asked everyone to come armed with stories and letters - written to you and about you - for the little brother we were expecting.  On your actual birthday, Momma and Dadda visited each of the tributes and memorials dedicated to you.  Trees, froggy statues, paver stones...they all mean so very much to us.  They announce to the world, "Peanut lived.  Peanut still lives on, and impacts the world every day in so many magical ways."

This year we will bring The Pickle to all these locations, and more.  We will visit the Butterfly House and explain how your spirit floats on the wings of each of these beautiful creatures.  Every time one flits by, we are touched by our Peanut.  Maybe we'll even have lunch at one of your famous diaper blowout spots, so we can laugh and cry and tell some of your hilarious stories.

More than anything, we will celebrate you.  Not just on September 12.  Not just during this wonderful month that knew you twice.  This month that welcomes the crisper weather of fall, that transitions the midwest into yet another season without Peanut.  But each and every moment of every day.  In every action, every word, every decision.  That, my sweet son, is your Peanut Effect.

Sending you bunches and noodles of love, to the moon - and back!

- Momma

Teeny, tiny Peanut at five days old.