He's A Handful.

Self portrait.

My Stewart is 5.

It's hard to believe. He's not old enough to be five yet.
I'm not old enough to have another child reach 5 yet.

What happened?

I find it hard to write about my second born,
except to say how wonderful a blessing he is as my second first-born as well.

How does that work?

After I married my wonderful husband we conceived 4 months later, to his surprise.

See, he thought he couldn't have kids.

ha ha.

This is still a running joke I like to remind him of as he's being climbed, sat on, yelled at, used as a tissue and elbow deep in diapers.

He thought it would take some time before babies started to arrive, if at all.

But he was thrilled nevertheless to add to our family so early.

And boy did we add to it.

Got him to stand still...wait! (3)

(Side note: I was looking for some vintage Stewie pictures, but we only had digital after the twins were born. My scanner doesn't compute to my computer or some such stuff, so I can't scan the baszjillion pictures I have of him.)
That's why lots of toddler stage type photos.

Moving on....

Stewart is hard to describe.

He's everything.

loud,
opinionated,
eager,
willful,
curious,
and
totally different than his older brother.

But, like any doting brother Stewart thrives in Trenton's presence.

He idolizes his older sibling.

Trenton had wanted a brother or sister so much himself that
he could hardly wait and spoke to my pregnant belly every day, coaxing the baby along.

The years between them didn't seem to matter too much.

They became instant playmates.

We lived out on a pig farm and part of the rental agreement was that I had to do chores in the barn.

Trenton would watch his baby brother, being only 5 himself, while I was out feeding pigs.

It usually took me an hour...RUSHING.

I would pray before I left, while I was gone, and as I walked in the door.

And there my two boys would be, happily playing together to my relief.

One teeny tiny in a swing, and one right next to him. They were usually watching a music video,
and Trenton would be the running commentary for telling his brother who the band was.

If you can guess who the band was, props.

Once Stewie wasn't so teeny-tiny, Trenton would come out to the barn
and push him in a stroller while I worked.

And then Stewart walked, which made chore time even longer.

That's a whole other post.

There seems to be that same bond growing between Stewart and his baby brother.

Stewart is eager to help with Wesley.

As long as there's nothing else going on of course.

But I do hope the two of them gain a close relationship.

Don't forget, he was 3 when TWO babies joined our family.

It was really tough on him because he needed all my attention to himself.

All of a sudden I was unavailable.

God tests us at even an early age,
but I think Stewart passed with ease.

I marvel at his energy sometimes.

He's the one who wakes the household.

He's never slept past 7:00am,
except at Granny's, which I have no idea how and I need to know the secret because I'm tired.

This blonde beauty has my heart.

He likes attention and loves making people laugh.

He's an excellent photographer, and I'll be posting pictures he's taken on another day.

I asked him what he thought about turning five.


He said,




"Next year I'll be six!"

It flies by my precious boy.

I'm glad you're just five.