Spina Bifida Awareness: Meet Tucker!

Meet Tucker!!!

Tucker's mom Amory shared the following post that she wrote for Tucker's third birthday with us:

Tomorrow we will celebrate Tucker's third birthday.  I sit here, as most moms would, with presents wrapped and party plans made.  As the preparations have been made, I haven't given much thought to this monumental day we are preparing for.  My baby is going to be three.  It seems three is a lot closer to big boy and a few steps further away from toddler.  I am trying to soak that in and cuddle a little more before I become "mom" instead of "mommy".  You see, if I realize now and have a good cry, I won't have to realize it tomorrow as we sing to him at his party and cry in front of everyone.  Logical, right?

This year Tucker has conquered walking with his walker. He continues to practice with his walking sticks.  He has grown tremendously in his speech.  He has become much more independent.  He can crawl into the van himself.  He walks in to school alone.  He plays in the backyard.  Hits baseballs, loves trains, and is seriously into anything with a beat. 

Tonight I walked past his ultrasound picture that we hung with a few other baby things in the hallway.  Seeing that sweet little shadow of a baby in the picture always brings back emotions I haven't thought of in a long while.  On nights like tonight, I think back to when they told us lots of scary things about our little boy's future.  They weren't trying to be scray, just realistic.  Ending the pregnancy, wheelchairs,  surgeries,  lots of really unknown, scary things...   If I had only known then what I know now.  If I had only known then how proud I would be every time I see that boy walk anywhere.  Walk!  He wasn't supposed to do that.  If I had only known then how I would often miss him during his naptime and secretly hope he would call out, "Mommy, I'm done!" so I can go in and just squeeze him.  If I had only known then how he would challenge me to push myself harder, and run farther, because of how hard I see him work to do what many of us don't ever think twice about.   He has more strength than most of us.

I love this kid.

He is my heart, he really is.
Happy third Birthday, my Love!  Mommy is SO very proud of you!

Thank you Amory for sharing your precious son with us! If you would like to visit Tucker and his family head on over HERE to check out their blog!