Dirkie Allen.....

(Again. Excuse the poor quality of the pics. Blogger will not allow me to post scanned pics. Any help with this problem accepted.)

Today is Dirk's 21st birthday!

Dirk was almost a Leap Day baby like my grandfather, Bernardus. I awoke at 4am on Feb. 29 knowing something was happening even tho baby was not due to arrive for another 3 weeks.

Daryl was to leave for a job 3 hours away where he would be gone the entire week. Instead we walked the hospital corridor all.day.long.

At 9pm doc decided to induce labor. It was not administered correctly and baby's heartbeat went wild and thus was our first ride in an ambulance. Once to the big hospital everything went great and 6 hours later we had a bouncy baby boy with a surprising headful of dark hair!!

The pregnancy baby name was "Bud". It was right again.

Daryl and I struggled with names. We couldnt agree. Bernardus was not my choice by any means even if he had been born on Leap Day!!! Daryl was determined to have the name Dirk, his grandfather's name on his deceased mother's side. Of course with all the hashing over the name we forgot the middle names we had picked out!! William, Blaine, and Zachary were the middle names we had picked out to go with "Dirk". But nope we were forgetful and finally went with Allen. The hospital staff were pushing us to have the named finalized. I guess they like you to have that finished before leaving the hospital.

Dirk was a healthy little baby for the first few days. Then he became jaundice which we were to find out was due to his blood type and mine being different. He was hospitalized for several days to be under the blue lights. When the doctor gave us a final hour of when she would transfer Dirk to the bigger hospital for a blood transfusion is when he had his first stable blood count. From then it was a slow steady progression forward. He was soon a chubby lil fellow. If only he slept as well as his appetite was.

One of the little tricks to getting Dirk to calm down when he had worked himself up was to gently rub his face right in front of his ear. He would about turn to putty in your hands!! He'd have the goofiest grin while turning back to Happyland. Of course this was effective- and adorable- so we used it when we had to! But thus is probably the beginning of his "twiddling years".

The baby pictures of Dirk when he was 6-9 months old were forgotten in a trailer we lived in for a few months. When I realized this had happened I contacted the landlord. She was not a pleasant lady and refused to send them to us.

At 6 months old Dirk was fed a very rotten apple by a toddler!!! He didnt like the taste of it thankfully but he did like how it squished between his fingers.

Early on we realized that Dirk had a weak stomach like his mother's. But he was also a very inquisitive little guy. When he was about 18 mos old I had a bad case of the stomach flu. I was flat out on the couch as any movement brought on the "commotion". I was attempting to explain to him that mommy couldn't do "snuggles" right then. Some bucket action pursued all the while his lil head was stuck in the bucket with mine. He just had to see what was goin on!! When I was finished....... he started. We both ended up snuggling on the couch the entire day......with buckets. Still to this day when he sees/smells vomiting he is on the verge of joining right in.

Soon after Daryl had done a repair on the pickup Dirk was found under the pickup banging a wrench on the bottom. He was "fixing" too.

He once used the frosting off his cake to "washa my face".

He would holler up the stairs to wake up Maria- WEE-ah! She unlike him was a great sleeper!

He told his aunt that his mother allowed him to put his feet in his bowl of Cheerios during breakfast. Yes, there has always been a stubborn streak in those brown eyes!!!

Dirk was the smallest of our babies weighing in at 6 lbs 15oz. I am still amazed that such a tiny adorable baby can become such a big strapping handsome boy!

2009- Dirk dropped by to join us for church. Both of our vehicles were in the driveway but no one answered his knocks on the door. He figured we had went with one of the kids' car and rode along with Maria and James to church. So off to church he goes.....

Only to find out after the service that we were all in bed yet!!!! A few of us were feeling under the weather so decided we would sleep in once and try to stop this "bug".

Its usually the other way around. When we arrive home from church we find out that he has over slept!!

Anyway,Dirk, that is a great way to start out your 21st year!!!

Hope you had a good day.

And that your friends enjoyed your birthday cake!

We love you much!