Welcome to The O'Leary-Hauser Blog!

Written with love, honesty, and humor to let you have a peek into our lives as the boys grow and have many exciting years of fun, adventure, love, and happiness (with hopefully minimal mishaps).

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Monday, February 3, 2014

Happy Birthday Garrett

Happy fifth birthday son.  Wow - how time flies.  I can't believe you are five already - you're growing into such a big boy.  Starting the ELL t-ball team soon, going to kindergarten in the Fall . . . .

I am so proud of you.  You are strong willed like me.  Stubborn, but determined.  You feel everything very intensely - joy and happiness and anger and frustration alike.  You are smart and observant. You are wildly funny.

I watch you at gymnastics, running around the Oak Tree at WHPS, playing at the park, running around Oakdale, riding your new big boy bike, laughing and rolling around in the grass, playing with Brady, and the countless other things we do together on a daily basis.  Sometimes I watch you as if from afar, almost as a stranger.  I can't believe you are mine.  I think of all we have done over the past five years and I am flooded with memories.

You are a newborn.  I cradle you in my arms.  I sleep with you.  We do mommy's milk around the clock.  I am nervous, but amazed by every moment with you.  We walk around the neighborhood and Lake Balboa.  We go to parks and just sit outside together looking up at the sky - watching clouds and the trees swaying in the breeze.  We spend lots of time together in the still of the night.  You smile, laugh, roll over, sit up, crawl, stand up, walk, run.  As time moves on we go to mommy and me classes and mommy and me swimming.  Oakdale becomes a very special place for us.  You play and start to explore on your own.  We go to Exploring Minds too, but you prefer a less structured environment.  Don't worry - I do too.  We do so may things together over the next few years - My Gym, art classes at Art Rebel and Make Art, music with Ms Ellen, swimming with Teacher Jennifer and Teacher Ailee, park playdates, reading at the library at WHPS. . . .

We go so many places as a family.  Places like San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Laguna Beach, Santa Barbara, Washington, DC, New York, Palm Desert, Ventura/Ojai, Palos Verdes, San Juan Capistrano, Lake Arrowhead, and Seattle.  We go to museums, concerts, sporting events, beaches, parks, go camping and hiking, go to plays, zoos, and aquariums.  So many memories from so many adventures wash over me.  I hope you continue to have a zest for adventure and explore your world and the world beyond your everyday.  I watch you soak up new experiences like a sponge.  I watch you look and learn and love all of your questions and observations.

We start and end every single day telling one another how much we love each other.  We go over the day at bedtime and talk and laugh.  We read a lot.  We sing a lot and listen to a lot of music.  We dance.  We make up stories and you wear lots of costumes.  We work to have patience with one another and respect one another's feelings and needs. We laugh. We cry.  We hug each other a lot.

I love you with all of my heart and always will.

I wish you so many things for the next year - happiness, a zest for adventure, new friends and deeper friendships with those friends you have now, good memories, new experiences, the conquering of fears, laughter, a lack of pain and sorrow, curiosity, contentment, and joy.  These things will play out in ways I can't even imagine yet, but I can't wait to be there with you every step of the way.  Thanks for all you give me and for bringing such joy to my life.

Sometimes you drive me crazy.  But I would be crazy without you in my life.

I love you G. 

Happy, happy birthday my special boy.

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