THE Week

Recital week is my craziest week of the year. Seriously, Christmas doesn't even compare. Throw in working at a summer camp with camp in full swing plus a Pre-K graduation, and let's not forget my ridiculous ability to volunteer for way too many things... well you've got yourself a week in CrazyLand. 

First there's photo day, where the dance studio is crowded with sequins attached to adorable little wiggle worms with painted faces from their mom's make-up stash, looking up at all the grown-ups, wondering why all of them look frazzled and proud and on the verge of losing it all at the same time. The volunteers inside whose tone threatens a fight if you put one more child in line without that wretched orange paper. (Never mind the poor parent volunteer responsible for handing out said paper, not alphabetized, by herself, to a thousand parents looking at her just as threateningly.) It's a party, let me tell you. 

Dress rehearsal is better, that is if you're not a show mom. (Yes, of course I volunteered. I have a problem, okay?) I came prepared, with my backpack of snacks and activities, checking kids in downstairs only to find out we should be upstairs. Going upstairs for 20 minutes, then being told that now we should take all the kids downstairs. (Side note: I'm not completely insane. I signed up for Harper's fully potty-trained class of 7, rather than the 11 three-year-olds in Kinley's class. Now that's using your noggin.) And trust me, the stage hands are just as ruthless as the photo day volunteers. They are like drill sergeants, and the show moms are the lazy recruits who have no clue what's going on, even when we really do. Make no mistake...the kids aren't the only ones who rehearse. As a show mom you also get to rehearse your duties for a month in dance class prior to recital week. (Even those of us carrying a 14-month old on our hip who is suffering from separation anxiety and wondering why in the world he can't just be asleep in his crib right in the middle of naptime...every Tuesday.) And looking back on the dress rehearsal, I'm still not sure if we were supposed to have the kids downstairs or upstairs for pick up. We ended up doing a little of both and got in trouble for taking up the next group's row in the auditorium. But all the kids got picked up by the correct parents, so win. Right?

Now add in...

...the crappy bows I made a couple of weeks ago, which were such a mess after being worn even one time (now I know to never use wire ribbon...who knew?) that I really did owe it to the kids to remake them...the night before photo day.

...the hole in my foot from my dangerous bookkeeping job.

...the amount of work on my desk the 3 days I worked this week. A day in the life of summer camp workers in summer, there's plenty there for a post of its own!

...the cake I made for Harper's Pre-K graduation, Thursday night after the morning dress rehearsal and the afternoon on a golf cart, going between both stores on camp solving cash register crises. 

...trying to pick up a giant popcorn machine, load it into my car, then unload it at the school all by myself, because every guy I know, including my husband, is working like a dog making summer camp happen. 

...and graduation. By far the least stressful and most enjoyable event of the week apart from the recital Saturday night. 

...oh, and let's not forget the 5 hours this week I spent on hair. 

Friday night I'm a show mom. It starts with 4:45 check-in (downstairs). We pass out snacks, we take kids on potty breaks, we fix costumes and hair. One kid asks about 100 times "how much longer?" Another one says, "see that boo boo on my foot? It's ringworm." And at least half of them were very concerned that their lipstick needed to be refreshed after the obscene amount of cheese puffs I fed them to keep them happy. (They're 5-year olds if you're wondering...)

It's time to take them upstairs. Choo-choo train fashion as we've been instructed, only one of the kids doesn't want her shoulders touched. Then standing in the wings we turn them facing the audience holding hands (we show moms really know our stuff!) but another little one refuses to hold hands, making the girl beside her, aka my daughter, start to cry. They go on stage, all 7 of them, and smile and perform wonderfully! We take them to line up for the finale...more tears from my exhausted, very sensitive Harper. The curtain goes down, lights off, and then a mad dash from us show moms with our flashlights trying to find our 7 dancers in green amidst the sea of about 100 sparkly children. 

Friday night I slept like a rock. When I got up with Foster Saturday morning, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I'm not kidding. 

Harper had a play date scheduled, which I cancelled. And gloriously, all 3 kids took a nap in the afternoon at the same time!! The sitter for Foster showed up at 4:30, I took some pictures (just a few...), checked the girls in with the other show moms, sympathy written all over my face, and went into the auditorium to sit. (sigh of relief)

The recital was excellent! (There's a reason those drill sergeants are back there, let me just say...) Kinley danced some, did a lot of twirls that weren't choreographed, played with the bow on her dress, and decided to make an early exit after her curtsy, staring at the other kids as she walked by as if they were crazy to still be standing there after the music had clearly stopped. It was perfectly adorable. Harper was towards the end, and after an incredibly long wait, she and all her classmates entered the stage with beautiful smiles on their faces. (I applaud you Saturday night show moms, job well done!) She knew all her moves and did such an excellent job! 

After the show we gave them flowers, took more pictures, were greeted by the awesome Pre-K teachers who had flowers for my girls and the other Primavera school dancers, and then went out for celebratory milkshakes at In-N-Out with Nana and Harper's teacher Miss Brooke, both of whom we simply adore!

The whole week was worth it. I love seeing my girls doing things they love, and knowing that these moments help shape them. They may not grow up to be dancers, and Kinley probably won't even remember this weekend, but they're constantly learning...learning who they are, what they like and don't like, who they want to be. And we as parents are learning, too. In addition to dance, next year each of them will do an extra activity: Harper wants to be in Daisies and Kinley wants to 'be a soccer star.' I love hearing who they want to be when they grow up, and it's kind of fun not knowing yet who they will actually become. Harper usually says she wants to be a doctor when she grows up. (When I hurt my foot, she burst into tears at the sight of it, but then got the band aids and doctored me up!) But when asked at her graduation what she wanted to be, she said a Rockstar. If only she knew, in my book, she already is. 

Eating Healthy: Who Do You Listen To?

There are so many opinions and studies and articles out there on how to eat healthy. So many in fact, that I'm pretty sure you could eat absolutely whatever you want and find an argument to back up each thing in your diet. At the same time, there will be someone to discredit every single thing in your diet, too. I've heard it said that fruit is bad because it has sugar in it, and of course there's the recent declaration of congress: pizza is a vegetable. Huh?!

When we stepped off the plane in South Africa in 2005, I lost 10 pounds in a week! I wasn't dieting, exercising, or eating anything specific...we had eggs and toast for breakfast, we grilled out with friends (or braii for my Afrikaans friends), we even went out for pizza. But their food is so fresh! When you buy milk or bread there, you have to consume it fast, because it doesn't last long. Their food just isn't chock full of a million preservatives. And packaged, processed foods are much harder to come by. If you want rice, you buy rice. They don't have half an aisle dedicated to 50 different kids of rice: minute rice, flavored rice, cheesy rice...it's just a bag of rice! 

When we came back to the states for good in 2008, I went to Walmart with my sister to buy new toiletries. When I looked at all the options for a tube of toothpaste, I was so overwhelmed I began to cry. I handed my sister my basket and my list and asked her to fill it with whatever she used. 

The amount of choices we have in our grocery stores is incredible, and a little scary. Combine that with the number of diets available to us, and it's a miracle our brains haven't shut down trying to make sense of the right choice. 

I've always landed somewhere in the middle. I try to stay away from overly processed foods and I buy our ready-made foods from Trader Joe's to avoid the worst of the preservatives and food additives. I give my kids fruit and vegetables and water to drink. I also give them dairy, meat, bread, and dessert. And like most families, we eat out here and here, including fast food when it's convenient. I've considered us to be pretty balanced.

But now I'm convinced that we can do better...

I have a lot of neck problems, one of them most likely being rheumatoid arthritis. This is not regular arthritis caused by overuse and age, it is an auto-immune disease. When I have pain, I have to take an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen, or even a dose of steroids when it gets really bad. And since most of the time I have pain, I end up taking a lot of ibuprofen, and that scares me. 

Chris has been asking me for a while to try an anti-inflammatory diet. But I've never given it a shot because, well...I just don't diet. I love eating, I love food, and I want freedom in what I eat. But last month I consumed so much ibuprofen I decided it was necessary. 

I was taking prescription strength doses about 3 or 4 times a week. Then it got really bad and I was having to take it daily. Now, two weeks in eating an anti-inflammatory diet and I've only had to take one dose in the entire two weeks. Not bad!!

Not only that, but one of my kids really struggles with constipation normally, and this diet is helping her tremendously!

So what is it? I started on Pinterest, curious to see if there were recipes and information there, and I found a lot of good stuff. There are certain foods that cause inflammation, certain foods that fight it, and the rest have nothing to do with it. 

I avoid (or seriously limit) the foods that cause inflammation: fried foods, fatty meats, gluten, dairy, and a few others. Then I eat everything else, but try to be very intentional about adding foods into my diet that reduce inflammation: berries, turmeric, avocado, cinnamon, kale, oats, almonds and other nuts, and foods packed with omega-3s such as salmon, chia seeds, flax meal, quinoa, etc. 

I will try to post recipes on here from time to time, but what I really want to do is share my weekly meal plan with you each Sunday. I'm a little scared to commit to a weekly anything with camp starting today, but it's something I have to do for my family every week anyway, regardless of whether or not I share it here. So hopefully this will help me stay committed in this crazy busy season!

(Disclaimer: typically in summer we eat every meal in the dining hall because, well it's free and I don't have to cook or do dishes! But it is a camp menu, and while our dining hall always has some healthier options, it usually has some very non-healthy options, too, when feeding 700 kids at once. I have decided to only eat dinner in the dining hall this summer, which is usually the healthiest meal there, and make breakfast and lunch at home. However, I will still put dinners on my meal plan for ideas for you!)

Here's this week. Hope you get some inspiration! Feel free to share this post on Facebook, Pinterest, IG, and Twitter. 

You want WHAT for Mother's Day?!

A friend of mine and incredible writer/blogger wrote this perfect blog post a couple months back that I can totally relate with. I loved it then, but today I found myself thinking of it again as I remember a certain Mother's Day before I was a mom:

It was the year before Harper was born, and one of my friends, a mother of 3 very young children, asked for a night away for Mother's Day. I remember thinking how sad that she would want time away from her kids on Mother's Day. I would want to be with my kids on that special day, lavished with hugs and kisses and homemade cards and breakfast in bed with cuddles from my cuties. Because in my inexperienced mind, that's what Mother's Day looked like. How could anyone want to pass up such a perfect day?

When my first Mother's Day was approaching, I was so excited! I had dreamt about being a mom and finally I was getting to experience this beautiful holiday for the first time. But to be honest, it felt more like Groundhog Day than Mother's Day. It felt just like the day before...because my 4 month old had no idea it was a special day for me, and my husband had recently been in a mountain biking accident and was laid up on the couch with pain medicine, unable to do much of anything. He did his best, having friends make and deliver breakfast and a gift for me. But my baby needed to nurse in the night, and she woke up early, and the dogs needed to be fed, and the dishes had to be done, and my injured husband was in a lot of pain and needed a lot of help throughout the day. 

It wasn't that it was an exceptionally bad day, it's that it was just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. I have no idea now, looking back, why in the world I expected a 4 month old to be any different on that day. And now 5 years later, realizing that only now does Harper really get it and get excited about celebrating mommy!

Since then I have received some really nice gifts from my husband and a few adorable homemade cards on this special day. I've also been nursing or pregnant, changed diapers, cleaned up spills and messes, and gone grocery shopping on this day, too. Because I have 3 kids aged 5 and under.

This year, when Chris asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, I said sleep. Foster has been a challenge at night, and he is just starting to sleep through the night again. Kinley has been waking up in the middle of the night with a bad dream a couple nights a week. And without fail, if by some miracle all 3 of my kids sleep silently through the night, one of our pets wakes me up. Two nights ago, it was our cat...jumping on my feet and lightly biting my toes, wanting to be let outside to go chase tiny nocturnal animals. 

I knew Chris was planning something, although my expectations were pretty low since he just had surgery two days ago. (THE surgery, so no more red headed babies from us by the way...it's ok, take a minute to mourn before you read on if need be...) He had me pack up the girls and take them to Nana's house for a sleep over, and a sitter was on her way to watch Foster so that we could go out for dinner. After a nice dinner, just the two of us, Chris took me to watch the sunset at the Prescott Resort. It sits on top of a big hill, overlooking the gorgeous Prescott scenery with a beautiful view of the sunset over Thumb Butte. Then he handed me my gift, a room key just for me! He had my clothes packed and a bottle of wine, my favorite snacks, and a box of yummy chocolates waiting for me in my room. He even used money he'd saved to pay for it, so I wouldn't be worried about how much it was costing us.

So here I sit, hypocritically enjoying THE best Mother's Day gift I have ever received: alone time and a night of uninterrupted, blissfully quiet, comfy SLEEP! I'm sitting in this giant, soft hotel bed, after finishing an omelette of my choice delivered straight to my room, drinking coffee and blogging without a single distraction. 

Now I get it! Wanting some time for yourself doesn't make you a bad mom, you want time for yourself because you're such a great mom! Because as moms, we wake up easily, we comfort our crying kids no matter what day it is, we style hair, we clean clothes, we throw parties, we cook and clean and do. We wipe butts, we clean toilets, we collect boogers in tissues, we often eat cold meals, we sometimes entertain little ones even while going to the bathroom. We sacrifice and love and give and serve. Some days are hard and there are plenty of days where I just want to run into my room and lock the door and hide under my pillow. We are far from perfect, but we are also pretty awesome! And that friend of mine I so unfairly judged years ago, let me tell you, she's one of the best moms I know! 

Enjoy today, whether your kids are old enough to pamper you and appreciate you and tell you how much they love you, or if your kids are much older and live far away and you feel a bit lonely today, or if your kids are tiny, incredibly needy, and follow you into the bathroom today. If at all possible, take a minute, or an hour, or whatever you can, for yourself. 

It's check-out time now, which means it's time to see my kids now. And I can't wait to see them, squeeze them, and even feed them! I can't wait to hug my husband and thank him and tell him how refreshed I feel. And I'm excited to see my mom, bring her some lunch, give her the gift my sisters and I got for her, and tell her how grateful I am for all her sacrifice, love, and selflessness. 

To all of my friends and family who have mentored me, influenced me, inspired me, comforted me, or had any part in helping me to be the mother I am today, thank you. Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there. And to those of you who got a little baby poop on your finger today, you know who you are, happy Mother's Day. You're amazing!

Today is the Day

Today is the day my husband meets his biological mother.  

Today is the day my kids meet their new Nana. 

Today is the day my best friend was born! 

To Chris:

Happy birthday babe! I'm so excited for today! I love celebrating you and making you feel special, and I love that you get to meet your mom today! I know you have a million things going through your mind today. Your stomach is twisted in a few knots and the anticipation is intense. Although we've talked about this a thousand times since finding her, you're no closer to having the words for all the things you're feeling. But I know you're wondering what she will think of you, us, our kids, our life...

Can I just say how very lucky she is? 

You are strong. 

You are brave. 

You are adventurous. 

You are a leader. 

You are responsible. 

You are generous. 

You are loyal. 

You are influential. 

You are everything a mother could want in a son. 

Your children adore you, and I am so in love with you! We've been to 45 states together, 7 countries together, we've performed on stage together, we've touched lion cubs together, we've bought a house together, we've prayed together, we've done ministry together...

...we've skiied, hiked, swam in 3 oceans, camped, white-water rafted, flown, driven, rode on a train, cruised in a tour bus, gone on safari, slept in a township, stood under the Eifel Tower, been to the top of the Empire State Building, sat in Times Square on New Year's Eve, stood on stage with Jay Leno, got lost in Boston, sipped maple syrup in Vermont, ate waffles in Belgium, and rode 4-wheelers on the dunes in Namibia together...

Plus we've had 3 of the cutest, sweetest, craziest, smartest, most adorable kids on the planet. 

She may not know you yet, but she will be so proud of you. I know this like I know the sun will rise and set. Because you are amazing. You are inspiring. You are committed to God's calling on your life, even when it's hard. You take care of us. You make your daughters feel beautiful and special. You hug your son and tell him you love him. You admire me and value me. 

And I love you. Enjoy today, every bit of it. 

Happy birthday to my favorite person. You're getting old, but I don't mind...ha!

PS...Remember that time we were camping in South Africa and those 2 ostriches walked terrifyingly close to us through our campsite and the warthogs snuck into our food stash and ate our papayas while we went into the game park? Seriously...what a fun life!

It's Time to Meet His Mother

(If you are new to this story of my husband's adoption, you may want to start here, and read here and here)

I've said many times how special birthdays are to me. Before I had children, it was a time to celebrate and make a fuss over the people I love. Then I had Harper, and her birthday was even more than that...it was the day I met her, the day I first laid eyes on her, the day I held her for the first time, the day she took her very first breath.

The three days I met my beautiful children for the first time are etched in my heart forever. 

Ask any mom, and I'm sure she can recount every detail of the days her babies were born. 

But our babies don't remember any of it. They don't remember a moment when they met their mother, their mother has simply always been. 

This Friday, May 1st, is Chris' birthday. And on his birthday, he will meet his mother, again. But this time he will be able to remember every detail, to greet her and search her face for traces of himself. 

When we were trying to decide a time for her to come out and meet all of us, I couldn't think of a better day for it to happen than his birthday. When we first started communicating with J, she shared with me these words: 

I have to admit, when I read that I got teary-eyed. To know that on his birthday, every year, she thought of him with a mother's longing. And then to realize, of course she did. She wasn't able to take care of him then, so she made the only decision she could. But that doesn't mean she forgot him or didn't care. She is a mother, after all. 

I am beyond excited to witness this reunion. Just as children love to hear their mom tell the story of the day they were born, I can't wait to hear their story, a story they both share but only one of them knows how to tell...another puzzle piece that he will be able to fit into his life.

As a mom, I am so happy that J gets to see her boy on his birthday after all these years. 36 years from the day she last saw him. 

I'm not expecting Friday to be magical. If anything, it will probably be a bit awkward and uncomfortable at first. But it will be special.  And it's just the beginning. 

From Sickness to Sunshine: Our last 13 Days

Two weeks ago, Foster woke up from his nap with puke everywhere. As far as common illnesses go with little ones, stomach viruses are the worst in my opinion. Especially when it makes its way through all three kids and manages to knock me down, too. 

Ugh. It was a rough week battling this bug. It wasn't your typical 24 hour virus, it lingered. Chris was working, and I was cleaning up after 3 sick kids while running a fever and not eating much. This led to a few melt downs where, I admit, I had to hide away in my room to shed some tears and pretty much lose my mind out of the sight of my poor, aching little ones. 

I was nursing Foster in the night to both comfort him and keep him hydrated, interrupting some much needed sleep. 

One day I just had to get out of the house. I loaded up the kids in their pjs, puke buckets in hand, and went for a drive. It seemed like a great idea, and for the most part it did a fine job restoring a small ounce of my sanity. Until, that is, I picked a windy road where my 5 year old, one prone to car sickness on a healthy day, had to use her bucket...oops. 

Then Thursday morning came: fevers gone, faces smiling, siblings bickering...ahhhh, back to normal. 

After disinfecting my house, washing every piece of clothing: every sheet and pillow case and stuffed animal, and mopping every moppable surface, we packed up the car and hit the road! 

Chris was already in California for a work conference, so I took the kids to visit our best friends in Orange County. Perhaps driving 7 hours with 3 kids 5 and under after the exhausting week I had was a bit over zealous. But all in all the trip went well, aside from Harper getting the nosebleed from hell while driving down the 10. (That was a 25 minute delay that was not anticipated).

The kids played together, we went to the beach, we had milkshakes on the pier, Foster ate sand, we all ate Chic-fil-a, we went to several McDougall family functions (we claimed them as our California family a long time ago and they accepted us graciously!), and we worked on negotiations for the arranged marriage of our second children. Brennan & Kinley McDougall...it just sounds good, doesn't it?

It was a good little getaway. Chris joined us on Saturday after his conference was over and today he's driving us home. We're all together, we're all healthy, and we're all refreshed from these few days in sunny California. 

Summer is Coming

Everyone counts down the days till summer. Till sunshine, beaches, vacations, family time, relaxation...

It's a little different for us. When you work at a youth camp, you still count down the days for sure, but for different reasons. It's our busy season. Actually, busy doesn't even begin to describe it...with over 7,000 people coming to camp this summer, it's our insane season. 

With it comes a mixture of excitement and stress. Our quiet camp slowly starts to buzz and sizzle with preparations, new staff, and so much anticipation...

...so much opportunity. Lives are truly changed here, and we are so fortunate to be a part of it. Hundreds of kids find Jesus here! And for those of you who don't share our faith, know that thousands of kids are immersed in the beautiful outdoors with no cell phones, video games, iPods, you name it. And they play...they play hard. 

For some of them, camp is a refuge. A week away from the chaos their homes may offer. A safe place to talk to grown ups they trust. 

Camp is awesome! 

Swimming, paintball, kayaking, mountain biking, rock walls and zip lines, basketball, games you've never heard of, obstacle courses, high ropes challenges...wishing you were 12 again?

(And yes, these pictures are from our camp...)

My kids love it. They aren't old enough to be campers yet, and they actually have no idea what paintball even is. But they love riding around on golf carts, playing with our summer staff, going to sessions and dancing to the music, and picking which of their two pools they want to swim in. They love the excitement. 

The only downside is how much we all miss Chris. He works super long days and his schedule is crazy. He works so hard to make the experience our campers have the very best possible. 

We miss him, but we're proud of him, too. With the days counting down, we're making the most of these last few weekends together. We're visiting friends, meeting Chris' mom (more on that soon!), camping, and whatever else we can think of. So for those of you on IG and Facebook, consider yourselves warned...the pics will be flowing!!

When Life Takes a Funny Turn

Loren Cunningham. That is the name of the CPA who performed our audit at camp this week. All I could think when I heard his name is of course you're a CPA. With a name like that, he had to be destined for accounting or law, right? Then there's me...a musician turned accounts manager. I'm not sure anyone could have guessed that I would be in finance when I grew up. 

Life can be so unpredictable. I grew up in and around the arts. Much of my early childhood was spent in green rooms, playing with my sisters while my parents rehearsed their next play. I started piano lessons at the age of 9, and began playing the flute in 5th grade, both of which led me to major in music performance and pedagogy.

(Sorry for the terrible pictures of pictures in this post, but it's what I have today. This is me at one of my recitals in college.)

I was all about music. I worked in the gift shop at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta during college, slipping into the back of symphony hall to listen to shows while the shop was slow. I played with the Atlanta Flute Choir and worked on pieces in school that were used for auditions at the Paris Conservatory of Music. 

People who know me now, who didn't know me then, would never know it. 

After college I joined Traveling Mercies, a traveling sketch comedy group with Chris and 3 of our friends. We lived in an RV and travelled all over America performing and writing and sight-seeing. I was still in the arts, but let's face it...no one wants you practicing the flute in a tiny RV, where it's hard to find a quiet place to begin with. 

(The front of our scrapbook from Traveling Mercies. We were babies then!)

During the audit, Mr. Cunningham, CPA asks me what I studied in college. And then, upon hearing that I did not study accounting, asked me how I learned my current profession. 

Well...it started at a rickety merch booth, handling our meager cash box for our very small comedy group. Really, because I was the last person to join the group, I got the job nobody wanted. It didn't bother me, I'm good at math and counting money, so why not?

As we grew, the 'money person' job became the 'figure out how to become a nonprofit organization/bookkeeper' job. Where did I learn my current trade? On a small fold-down table behind the passenger seat of an RV, cruising down the interstate...

Who knew that from there I would go on to be a banker, and now an accounts manager at a much larger nonprofit, handling several accounts all on my own? 

Can you think of weird turning points in your own life? Choices that seem so simple and insignificant at the time that turned out to be pivotal? 

I think it's cool. So many surprises and twists to keep things interesting. Like leaving the RV and moving to Africa...I can guarantee you I never saw that one coming! Not knowing the day we met Flaps Van der Merwe, that we would later live in his South African home while trying to find a place to live in Pretoria. 

I'm grateful. Life is hard, but it's also fun and surprising and anything but boring. I miss music, but I also love what I'm doing now. (Accounting definitely feeds my inner nerd, let me tell you...) And in the next few months, I'll get to use my music degree to teach my sweet Harper how to play piano. So many layers to each of us, so many experiences that take us to new places in life, keeping things interesting...

Foster's Big Year

"We've had bad luck with our kids - they've all grown up." ~Christopher Morley

Have you ever read the book If I Could Keep You Little? I can't help but think, every single time I read it, that my kids are too young to understand it, and really I'm just reading it for myself. I love it though...such a sweet reminder that there is always more to look forward to right around the corner. 

Now my baby is one. It's weird thinking that I will most likely never have a newborn again. And while my heart is tempted to be sad, I'm not sure I have the right. I've been so blessed to have not just one, but three beautiful children. I even got to play with both girl and boy baby clothes. 

So here is a happy, reminiscent glance at Foster's first year...

• you were born on a Monday...

• you were my biggest baby...

• the first few weeks, after the girls were in bed, we would lay silently next to each other and just stare at each other. It was my favorite time of day...

• Nanny moved in when you were only 3 weeks old. You love the sound of her voice...

•you used to suck on your tongue while you slept...

• at 4 months you were off the charts in height. You're still crazy tall...

• you sat up at your 4 month check up...

• you went through a phase where only mommy would do...

• you used to fall asleep in the bath...

• once you tasted real food, you started refusing all things puréed...

...and now...

• you have 4 teeth...

• you wear 18 month clothes and size 4 diapers, my little giant...

• you can say hi, mama, daddy, more, and puppy...

• you love your sisters. Harper can always make you laugh...

• you love playing with me, but you love sleeping on your daddy...

• you finally have some hair...

• you're close to walking, but every time you take one step, you grin really big, throw your arms out wide, and free fall into my arms with glee...

• you're my favorite baby boy in the entire world...