Birthday Boy

Remember this?

Wait back up. Remember this?

Yikes. This is what I looked like one year (and about a month) ago, on Charlie's due date.

Three days later, in the middle of the night, we bundled up, asked our neighbor, Page, to sleep on the couch for when Grace woke up, and drove through the dark night to the hospital, where we waited the long hours until Charlie was born.

All pregnancies and births are miraculous. Maybe that sounds strange, if you haven't been there, to say that all of them are--but holding a tiny baby in your arms, with perfectly formed fingernails, eyelashes, fingerprints, and knowing that somehow it grew so perfect inside you, without your really doing much besides eating well, sleeping more, and enduring, you feel incredibly humbled to have taken part in this miraculous creation.

With Charlie, though, since I was pregnant at this time of year, I thought more than ever about the miracle of it--and about the miraculous birth of our Savior. As I lifted my tired, aching body, felt my joints grind together just walking down the hall of my comfortable home, I thought of her, uncomfortably seated on a donkey, enduring mile after mile of grueling travel as she and Joseph made their way to Bethlehem. She must have felt bruised all over, tired, and frightened by the unknown pain of her impending labor. She must have wondered where her child would be born, in that far off city, far from the comfort of her home. I appreciated more fully the sacrifices she made to bring our Savior to this world. And when we brought Charlie home, and I held him in quiet moments and watched his perfect face and thought of all that he could be, I felt an even greater wonder at and reverence our Heavenly Father's great and beautiful plan for us, and honored to take part in it by helping to bring these sweet children into the world. It was an incredible gift to have a new baby at Christmas time.

December 13th marked this sweet one's first birthday! I don't know how the time has slipped by so quickly. Now he is this almost-toddler whose favorite things include bottles of milk (I know he should be on a sippy cup by now...), playing with Gracie in her castle-tent, and opening and closing doors. Seriously, he can do that for upwards of twenty minutes if it is the right door.

We kept it low-key, starting with some pizza from a place down the street. He ate the crusts. Then we gave him his presents, which he was cool with. He kept hugging his duck bank from my parents.

Then we presented the birthday boy with our traditional 1-year-old-cupcake (made with Gracie's exuberant help--she loves him. And cupcakes.)...

He smashed it into his face with both hands.

It was a hit.

We love our Charlie boy. :)