Ask any parent of a former preemie and you’ll find that they very likely honor their kid’s due date as much as, if not more, than they celebrate their birth date. Once a mama finds out that she’s pregnant, the due date is the end goal, the day she will dream about and anticipate. When you best that date by more than two months, it can be a bittersweet occasion. For that very reason, I tend to commemorate my due date every year because it reminds me of the hurdles we went through and the sheer fighting spirit that our kiddo has as a result of his early arrival.

We knew from the get-go that our son had some moxie. His daddy has joked that he stared down the angel of death and gave him the middle finger on the day he was born. In fact, his middle name means lion heart which has proven to be a very fitting moniker. And since his birth, we have seen him continue in this fashion. He is no doubt his own person…adventurous, loud, imaginative, and tenacious with endless energy and an old soul. One minute he can be racing across the backyard, in full cowboy regalia with guns a blazin’ and in the next breath asking you some deep question about heaven and hell. He loves to wrestle with his daddy to music from Rocky. And he dreams of living on a farm where he can be a full blown homesteader. I love all of these qualities but the one I find most endearing is his ability to become whoever he wants to be and is not afraid of what anyone might think of him. Oh, to live life with such abandon…it’s a freedom that few people allow themselves to experience and one I hope he never surrenders.

We have built a rather massive dress-up box to feed this alter ego. Really, it’s more like a box, three drawers, and two hooks full of any imaginable hat, accessory, jacket, vest, or weapon imaginable. It seems excessive, but he is in character everyday, sometimes several times a day, so it seems warranted.

When we took him to see The Greatest Showman last week, it was impossible to say no when he leaned over in the middle of the movie and asked if he could get a top hat. Before we even made it home from the theater, Amazon was set to deliver his new hat just 48 hours later. And of course, it had to be accompanied by a ringmaster jacket…so we pulled that together the next day too.

Indulgent? Yes. But paramount to his persona and therefore essential for us to back? For sure.

In the same way that our son entered this world with a bang, he also lives BIG. So in honor of my due date today…I give you the first ten pics from my phone of him all decked out. And all of these are from last week alone! 😉