Two Years!!!

Happy birthday to my awesome son, Orren Kiet! Two years.... wow. I can't believe it's been that long. Two years ago, he weighed not quite 10 pounds, was not quite 2' tall, and his favorite passtime was a toss-up between sleeping and nursing. He was adorable, looked just like his daddy, and was the most perfect little person we ever could have asked for.

He was born easily and peacefully, under the tall Georgia pines, on a 75 degree Christmas morning, with a warm breeze blowing through the open window of the birth center, off the salt flats of the Savannah River. One year later, he celebrated his first birthday at his uncles' house in Minneapolis, in one of the biggest Christmas snowstorms the Twin Cities had seen in years. This year, he celebrated his birthday, in the 75 degree West Texas sun, with the desert sand under his feet. In two years, he has seen 17 states, and traveled from the coast of Georgia to the tip of Texas, and from the Mexico border to the Canada border. He's eaten everything from bland Minnesota food to spicy Tex-Mex, Thai family recipes, and fish, grits, and greens. He's run wild on farms, ridden down tall hills on a sled, and even seen the Moscow Ballet. He's climbed mountains, made masterpieces with chalk, and helped plant squash seeds in the dirt and then helped harvest it when it had grown big enough. His tastes are as diverse as his heritage, and his experience is more diverse than that.

It's barely the beginning, buddy. You're going to go so far, and do so much, and you're off to one hell of a start.



His birthday cake kind of got messed up, so we made him a giant cookie instead. Good thing I still had enough stuff to make icing. Erin thought it should be green, so that's what we did.


You can't put a giant cookie in front of a little boy and expect that he's not going to just dig right in! He loved it. He also loves his balance bike, his big Lego set from grandma and grandad, and his gift card from Uncle Tom and Uncle Rob. It was a good birthday for Orren!