The Burlingames

Eli took a big step tonight: literally. He was holding my finger and walking toward Megan. I pulled my finger [hey now] away from Eli and, instead of sitting down like he usually does, he took three little steps to Megan. A little bit later he took four more small steps. He’s on the verge of running away and chasing down Gator. Here we go.

Eli was sitting on Megan’s lap this evening while we were looking at pictures on my laptop. I looked at the picture of Eli on my desktop, pointed at it, and asked Eli “who is that?” He smiled, looked at the picture, and then looked behind the screen. I think he was looking for the rest of the baby. He did it a couple more times before the game got old.

…we welcomed Eli Mathias Burlingame into the world and into our lives. He weighed in at 8lbs.  10 oz. and was nearly 22 inches long. He changed our lives in so many different ways.

As you can see from the picture he had a major cone head. The first six months of his life (and our new life) were challenging but so rewarding. God gave us a beautiful baby boy who needed extra special parents to care for his extra special needs. We spent time at the hospital watching others care for our son and teaching us to care for him. We spent countless hours cuddling and loving him. We learned lots of new lingo – cardio, heart cath, echo, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, IV, NJ/NG tube, vent, nitrogen tank, etc.  We shed tears, smiled happy/sad smiles, shared laughter, looked on in wonder and amazement – through it all we saw God’s hand.

Today we have a one year old little boy who is happy, carefree and loving life. He grew up way to fast. He’s crawling all over the place, talking/babbling a lot, trying lots of yummy new foods, going on trips and so much more. Eli is such a joy in our lives. We cannot imagine life without him. God gave us a challenge and a miracle all in one kiddo. It’s so hard to believe it has been one year already. Man, time sure does fly.

We love Eli’s smile, laughter, babbling/talking, movements, screeches, rubberband wrist, chubby legs, squishy cheeks, big brown eyes, drooly face and so much more. We love our little boy! Happy birthday Eli!!!!