Happy Birthday Michael!

My BABY!

Michael was the kiddo who made me a mommy for the first time. And he was so tiny. At a week old he was barely over 5 lbs. And now? I can wear his flip flops. *sniffle*

He's so big! So old!

For his birthday he had some school and neighborhood friends over and they did a scavenger hunt and broke codes. I was so impressed. They broke pig latin, Morse code, found the right Cardono grilles, figured out the invisible ink, etc. It was pretty cool. Smart kids.

Michael is such a great kid and I am glad to have him in our home. In fact, at school, Michael never lost even ONE star ALL year long. So that pretty much means he was always on task, always nice, always well-behaved. He is a great great great kid and we are so lucky to have him.

Happy birthday, awesome boy.

Happy Birthday McKay!

Oops, a little late.

It's been crazy with the end of school and then the whole family getting so sick, but I really did want to post that McKay is 9 now.

Sheesh, I almost have 2 kids in double-digits.

It's been a good year for McKay. He's done so well with Michael in Mrs. Chirrick's class. He has been so good about learning and following more rules, so he gets to go out and play at friend's houses more. (He's never been naughty, mind you. Just prone to disappear.) In so many ways, he's growing up so quickly this year.

But in a lot of other ways, he's always the same. He loves to cuddle. He says the funniest, awesomest things ever. He's keenly observant. I think if people knew how much he was watching them, and really, how accurately he was assessing them, they would be shocked.

Having McKay in our family is one of the most sincere blessings I could imagine. He brings a sweetness and peace (most of the time...;) ) to our house. We also are in a unique situation. Seeing how people react to McKay is a very interesting filter for people. We have seen the best of people come out and we've been able to bond with people more deeply than I would have imagined over McKay, and on the flipside, we have seen some of the ugliest of human behaviors over McKay. But, it has been a blessing to our family to be able to learn and grow with McKay as a guide.

Happy Birthday, sweet boy.