If you have been reading for four years then first, you deserve some sort of award. Seriously. Putting up with over a thousand days of my rambling is kin to terrorist interrogations. Toenails fall out spontaneously when reading that long 🙂 And secondly, you would know that we planted a tree for Will on his due date. It was one of those I’m-overdue-someone-hand-me-a-shovel type activities.
A little over a week later, we snapped Will’s first photo with the cherry tree. Then when we moved from our first house to our current house, we took the tree with us and replanted it here. I have a photo of Will next to it when he turned two somewhere but for the life of me, I can’t find it.
I have always loved the idea of a birth tree to see how the kid and the tree have grown up together. Can you even imagine it from a newborn’s perspective? I often think what the baby would say if he was talking to another baby….”first, you get pushed out of someone’s genitals, they talk a lot about your excretory system and then they celebrate you with plantings of a tall green thing that doesn’t really do much of anything. If you are lucky, the thing that doesn’t move, doesn’t entertain you and doesn’t feed you won’t die. It’s called birth.” That’s how I imagine it.
Anyhoo…this year we snapped another photo of Will next to the tree on the week of his fourth birthday (I need to resnap it because it’s so blurry…mama brain had the tree in focus though!). At one point we had a scare about the tree’s survival (we think some deer were trying to mow it down) but this year Mother Nature confirmed that it’s going strong…especially when planted among weeds 🙂
The other thing that is going strong is our willingness to uphold traditions…even if we are late to the tradition party 🙂
So we always wanted to plant a tree for Weston but since he was born in the winter, we didn’t do it right away. Then spring got away from us…as did fall…and now we are one year late. But we figure it’s better late than never. Will has a birth tree…Weston has a first birthday tree and it’s in what I exaggerate as ‘our orchard’.
We decided to snag a fruit tree for our little Munchkin over another cherry tree or a different flowering tree. I liked it because of the irony. We always say that he has peaches n cream complexion and the whole semi-dwarf thing is hilarious since he is my biggest baby and probably will outgrow Will at some point (he has his mommy’s boneage – that’s a word.).
Even though it’s a fruit tree, it has these beautiful little pink flowers. And we found out that it is self-propagating so in a few years we can choose to fertilize it and it should start to produce some peaches! I love the idea of Weston being able to climb his own tree and toss down some fruit to his brothers…also known as peach-pelting. Tell me that’s not little-house-on-the-prairie perfect.
Ok for the life of me I don’t know how this kid’s face is constantly dirty. It’s like he is allergic to having a clean chin. I swear I wiped it right before this shot. literally seconds.
I forget all about the dirt when he gets all smiley. It’s those squinty eyes that get me. Will has his dimples and freckles, Weston has squinty eyes and LJ has the hair. God knew that he couldn’t put them all on one kid or I would have just died of the cuteness.
Poser.
When we brought LJ home, we decided to make his first trip out of the house be one to the home improvement store to pick out his tree.
We waited about two weeks to plant it, so here is the little guy.
We decided to put it on the other side of the yard since this was gonna be the biggest tree so far. Jeremy and I both love the blooms that it promises and I think it’s gonna be the perfect shade tree. I plan on one day putting a bench over here so that I can sit between our yard and our neighbors yard and watch the boys play with their friends. Heaven knows the calories that would be burned on the walk over there 🙂
So that’s our current birth-tree situation. Hopefully one day all these grown boys will willingly want to do yard work because they want to keep the grounds around their tree nice 🙂 Hey….a mom can hope, right?!
Have you planted birth trees for a kiddo or a dog or for the planet? Did you switch up the tree species? I like that our boys each have a different variety – because they are so different. If only I could find one of those money trees….I’ll have to save that one for our favorite kid 🙂
My dad planted a tree in our front yard when I was born. Every year on my birthday he took my picture next to it until we moved when I was sixteen. I have since moved to another city, but I always make sure to drive by and check out “my tree” whenever I’m in town visiting. Thirty-two years later, it’s now a huge oak tree.
I love this tradition mostly because it’s something my parents did for us as babies. I don’t have a picture with my tree for every year, but I have a picture for a lot of the younger ones, and a few of the big birthdays later in life – like 18, 21, etc. and this year, for my 32nd birthday which I got to take pregnant! Fingers crossed we close on a house we are currently in contract for before this baby pops out and we can start the tradition all over again!
Also – I can’t get over Weston’s squinty eyes either! All of your boys are so adorable…
We planted a birth tree for our daughter (flowering crab) and are planning to plant a first birthday tree for our son in the next couple weeks! We’re deciding between a maple and a fruit tree for him. I’m expecting our third child right now and am already mulling over what to plant next year for him/her. I love the tradition! Our daughter loves to check out her tree’s progress every spring. So fun to know others are doing the same tradition!
Wonderful tradition! My oldest sister got a tree at my gradparents’ house when she was born and now that the house is my parents, my nephew got one when he was born. Both are the first grandchild of their generation and it’s fun to see the 40 year old tree and the ten year old tree keep growing!
I did but 2 died and the remaining one looks god awful…..heart was in the right place
This is such a great idea! My parents planted a tree for me when I was born, 32 years ago. We moved out of that house when I was 6, and the tree stayed behind. Even thought we don’t even live in that town any more (we’re about 4 hours away), on the rare occasion when we visit, I make a point to drive by it. It is HUGE now! I just love the fact that somewhere out there in the world, I have my own tree 😉
I love this! My parents planted maple trees when both my sister and I were born. I was born in the fall so I love to see the leaves turn red each fall around my birthday! Great idea to take photos of the boys each year with their tree to watch them both grow!
Your boys are just so cute, the pictures you share always make me smile! I have a nephew that is about Weston’s age. It is SO fun!
It’s been 4 years?! I think that this is the most amazing idea, I cannot wait to have babies and trees lining up my backyard
Weston kills me. Seriously. That face. I love that you picked a peach tree to mix things up- what a sweet thought!
We moved into our first home in dec 2013 and we have a huge Kwanzaa cherry by our driveway and I am seriously obsessed with it. It is what I look forward to the most in spring! You will love it!
Weston has Jeremy’s eyes!! 😉
Love it. I was seriously thinking of a “birth tree” for my 7 month old. My almost 5 year old daughter, Lily, got a “Lily garden” even though it contains numerous other flowers too. My parents found her a lily with our last name and “Biggs” in it which fit perfectly because she was 9 lbs 10 oz. Now that our son is here, I really want to plant a blue spruce for him.
In my family we do trees in memory of people. My parents moved and bought all new trees for our closest loved ones who have died. We typically use the money people donate as a way to incorporate everyone. When my mom’s dad died, her coworkers specifically gave money towards a big tree. The same happened for my brother and they shared it with me. Instead of a tree, which I was afraid of killing, I bought an iron arbor for my daughter’s garden so it will always be a part of us.
I love this idea!
We planted a memorial tree for our Boxer that we had to put down last fall. It’s a Cleveland Pear tree, and our boys still call it “The Gabby Tree” and talk about her. 🙂
Love this idea! We haven’t planted a tree after our kids– but we did name them after trees! 🙂 Judah Elm, Ezra Oak, and Hazel Lynden (not spelled with an I b/c we thought a y was more girly). Anyways, thinking we should plant a tree for each of them now!
I love this tradition you have going for your boys! We planted fruit trees in our yard when we moved in to our current home close to three years ago and I’m happy to tell you that the peach tree we planted has fruit growing on it for the first time as we speak. It’s also amazing how large the tree has gotten in that time! I love seeing the blossoms on it each year and they smell amazing! Now I just need to be sure and beat the squirrels to the peaches when they are finally ready. They went after my other fruit trees last year.
I hadn’t heard of a Kawanzan Cherry tree so had to look it up. While very beautiful, it is short lived … 15 – 25 years. If that’s the case you may want to get a different tree if you want it to last throughout his lifetime.
What a perfect tradition, Katie! It’s so cool to see how much Will’s tree has grown, too 🙂
I lost a baby in 2010, and planted a tree in memory…I had been calling the baby Bluebird (for Bluebird of Happiness), so I refer to that tree as the Bluebird tree. Unfortunately, my marriage ended late that year, and I could not keep the house. Leaving that tree was so incredibly hard for me to do, and I still drive by every once in awhile and check out how it is growing!
Good part of the story is….God blessed me with an amazing husband, we have an awesome blended family of 6 kids, and we just had our first baby a week ago! And my husband surprised me and ordered a tree to be delivered while we were at the hospital having our son! It is the same kind as the tree I had planted in memory of my Bluebird. I now have a River Birch, waiting to be planted in my front yard. God is so good at redeeming broken things, isn’t He?!
When we bought our house, there was a lovely chokecherry tree in the backyard, but the berries made our beagle sick every fall. Then a friend of ours told us that our house was built by his uncle and that tree was his cousin’s birth tree! I felt awful about cutting it down, like it was somehow linked to the health of this random cousin, which is ridiculous but that’s how my mind works. We just had it taken out and now not only does out yard get more sunshine, but our beagle should be healthy this fall.
Your kiddos are just da bomb! One is more adorable than the other. And surrounded by so much love and nice thoughts they are (why do I write like Yoda talks?). I am sure they will each love their tree when they grow up. Maybe they will all want a tree house in there?
We have two giant Kwanzaa cherry trees smack in the middle of our backyard; they are so uber-beautiful in the spring! Love those! Such a nice family tradition. Keep planting trees, Katie.
We had this tradition going for many years with my kids. We planted trees on my parents land that will always be in the family because when our first kiddo was born we were living in an apartment. We took photos with the kids by their trees every year from when they were born until they 5 years old. There were 3 trees for each of our three kids and then in one weekend beavers came and cut down all three trees and dragged them into the near by creek! I have never been so mad a wildlife!
I agree. Katie makes cute babies but that Weston kills me too! I planted a tree for my daughter 7 years ago but it didn’t make it. 🙁
This post made me laugh, because it reminded me of something that my two sisters and I did when we were little. One year on Earth Day, we decided to honor our Mom by planting three trees for her as a surprise. I think we filled out some sort of mail-order form, and an organization mailed them to us for free. We were probably 10, 8, and 6 years old. Fast forward twenty-five years, and my Mom had to shell out about $2500 to have the trees removed, because, OOPS, we planted them too close to the house, and they were destroying the foundation of her house. She always teases us about the trees, and how they weren’t really free, they were actually several hundred dollars a piece!
I love this idea for future kiddos! My dad planted a bush the morning of my wedding day, and my parents gave us one of the same type for our anniversary, so both houses have “wedding bushes.”
P.S. I stumbled across your blog when Will was a baby, so maybe 3 1/2 years?
I think trees are a perfect way to commemorate an occasion. We gave spruce trees away as our weddding favors and it’s fun to hear how many are still growing strong. 13 years later, the saplings are pretty big! We had some left over and now have around 40 large spruce lining the property. You can get hundreds of them from the DNR for a great price. A friend gave us an apple tree when our second son was born 7 years ago. We have 2 other boys (like you!) and have planted apple trees in their honor as well. What a beautiful baby gift to bring others. You spend about the same on burp cloths, etc. and these are much cooler! New baby gift/shower gift idea!
I’ve never heard of a birth tree! It’s a very personalized idea and so sweet to see how they grow together. It would be super cool to do graduation pictures with the tree.
http://www.mysimplesignificance.blogspot.com
LJ is reallllly realllllly cute!!!
This is such a great idea! We’re still apartment dwellers for now, but that would be a special idea to have our daughter plant a tree when we move into a house.
This is such an awesome idea Katie! When we start having little kiddos I’d love to do something similar. It’s such a sweet gesture they’ll be so grateful for when they are older!
We did plant for my first baby. It was actually a gift from a friend – a Lilac that blooms the time of year he was born and we brought it with us when we moved. Since my other baby was born in very early spring (there may still be snow around) March we didn’t think of it – then continued to forget – he’s 3 now…
So sweet! Wish we has room to plant trees for our 3 girls!
You deserve an award for properly mulching your tree! So many people practice the sad, sad art of volcano mulching where they pile the mulch up in a cone shape right against the trunk. This slowly kills the tree.
So, anyway, this is weird but I’m glad that your tree is properly mulched — it will live much longer and thrive!
We had an ornamental cherry tree just like this at our old house and it was beautiful in the spring!! A perfect choice for an adorable squishy baby 😉
So we had home births for our last two little girls, and part of the home birth experience is that you end up with the placenta after its all said and done. I knew that I wanted to plant those placentas under special trees/flowers for my girls when we bought our forever house. The only problem was that it took 4 years (and 3 rentals) after the oldest was born before we finally found our forever house. And every time we moved my hubby would ask me if we really had to take the placentas with us (they were in the freezer wrapped in baggies inside of grocery bags so you couldn’t see them) and I insisted they come along. But last spring I was finally able to plant then under two rose bushes in our front yard. I felt really bad though because our son was born in the hospital and we didn’t have his, so my hubby and he picked out a beautiful Apple tree and planted it for him. He’s 8 now and he takes such sweet care of that tree- making sure to water and weed it all year long!
I love this post! I had a birth tree planted for me when I was born and now I am carrying on the tradition with my kiddos too! We just planted our maple trees for our little ones at our new(er) house. I wrote about it at:
http://www.ahousestory.com/four-trees-us/
Check it out if you get a chance! Thanks for sharing your story. Your boys are precious:)
Love the concept of birth trees! My parents had them for my sisters when they were born, but they both got bug infestations and died. The trees, not my sisters.
Can’t wait to check it out 🙂
xo – kb
Awww…wedding bushes 🙂
xo – kb
OH NO! At least she was REALLY well reminded of you 🙂
xo – kb
WHAT?! Holy cow those beavers were busy! I would be so mad too!
xo – kb
Oh yes. That is so true.
xo – kb
Hopefully by living in the country we will be on the long end of that! And perhaps he will have his own babe by then to plant a tree for 🙂
xo – kb
So cute!
xo – kb
My third son was born sleeping last month. On the way home from the hospital, I noticed all the redbuds were in bloom, so that weekend, we went and bought two. I decided I wouldn’t be able to bear it if Luke’s tree died or we moved, so I decided that all redbud trees are Luke’s trees. They were blooming when he was born, have beautiful heart-shaped leaves and will be a beautiful yellow in the fall. I love that my other kids will never even know them as redbuds, they will always just be Luke’s Trees to them. My heart is still broken without a doubt, but I love having a living symbol of my angel baby.
Oh my…my heart is broken for you. I think I might have to start calling them Luke’s trees too.
xo – kb
Hey Katie! I love this idea! I think we will get this once we move into our permanent home. We are trying to conceive our second child now and it has been a long road. Please say a prayer or two for us.
Will do 🙂
xo – kb