A very happy half-birthday to you!

DW is six months old today!  Happy 1/2 birthday buddy!

Ok, I know celebrating a "half" birthday may seem silly to some people.  Heck, I was one of those people when kid #1 was born.  But life happens and perspectives change, and well, we needed another reason to make some cupcakes around here.

No, I didn't let him eat the cupcake.  Naturally, I took it and ate it in front of him and told him I was doing him a favor, like any good mom would do.

AW enjoyed our little party too.

Then he got drunk on sugar and demanded to sit in the Bumbo seat.

Then he gave DW the old "when I was your age Bumbo seats didn't even have safety straps" lecture.

Seriously, who invited this guy?  

But seriously with all light-hearted joking aside, I mentioned before that perspectives change sometimes.  About two years ago, a mom friend of mine lost her child just days after he turned six months old.  He was the same age as AW, so the news of his passing was particularly painful, as I held my son and could feel the true weight of what she had just lost.

Before the accident that took Milo, his parents celebrated his six month milestone with a little cake and a "1/2" candle. The image of him eyeing up that sweet cake in the pictures they took that day live in my heart.  Now, suddenly, half birthdays seem just as much a reason to count your joys as real birthdays.

Little Milo's memory is dear to our hearts in this household.  Over the past two years, I think of him quite often.  I think of him and his parents, who are two amazing, built from rock-strength people, and his new little brother who is DW's age.  His mom advocates for car seat safety in honor of Milo so that other parents do not have to know her pain.  Though Milo was properly secured in his car seat it is still her mission to make sure that kids are riding as safely as possible.  If you are unsure of how to properly use your child's car seat, I urge you to educate yourself.  This is a great place to start: https://www.facebook.com/CarSeatsForTheLittles

It seems incredible to me that DW has been with us half a year already and in the next six months he will learn to sit and crawl and maybe even walk.  And by the end of summer I will have a one year old.  It simply goes by all too fast.