I missed #tbt, or Throwback Thursday for those of you who aren’t hip to the kids’ lingo these days, by about twenty minutes and I don’t think you can be late for hash-tagged events. Right? I mean, then it would be all #laterblog and no one even knows what that means. Right?! Besides, at the time, I wasn’t alert enough to enjoy a walk down memory lane. But now? Because it’s Friday. Because I can’t read another.stinking.email this week. And because I cried in the card aisle at Target earlier, I walk.

I started with photos from my pregnancy. Good night I had some serious vein action going on in my belly. The last photo I took was on my due date … February 12, 2006. I was pretty proud of my giant, hard belly. I’m not gonna lie. But at that point, Connor really didn’t have anywhere else to stretch and neither did my ribs. I was reminded every time his foot nestled deeper into my right side. Rib #10, I’m pretty sure it was.

At any rate, I decided that you, my dear reader, may not be as enthused with a photo of my 40 weeks and zero days stomach. (It was still totally cool.) So, I started previewing other folders and came across several of my favorites from 2008ish. Connor was two and a half at that point, and my goodness, he was so darn cute. And what I think is so telling is the smile. Even today, Connor has a smile that lights up my soul. It always has.

I totally was crying looking at cards earlier. Connor has reached the age where a ‘kid’s birthday’ card seems a bit too young. But then when you start reading cards for a ‘son’s birthday,’ it just gets you … right … there. Right in rib #10. In this case, it’s more of a bittersweet pain than like that of a nail being driven into your bone, but it still hurts. Tonight, though, I just smile because I see that face. That face that lights up my world and the one that gave me the title ‘mom’. And because if I don’t look at the sweetness of that face, I might remember that I was doubled over in pain every minute in a stale hospital hallway enjoying his foot using rib #10 for leverage for his big debut.