Happy 3!

Three years ago we were sitting in a hospital room on a saturday morning, too distracted to turn on cartoons, having checked in thursday night and now starting to believe that one could actually be pregnant forever. Time had stopped passing and I just figured someone would let me know when a baby was born. Or not. As long as I could take a nap afterwards.

I got to nuzzle Zachary many hours later, but the nap has never come. 50/50 isn't bad, for obstetric dreaming.

Now he's gone from a bundle of smiles to a bundle of smiles with legs. And words. And deeply complicated emotions. A person that we recognize as flashes of us mixed in with flashes of the world mixed with whatever it is that makes us all us - the part that is a bonus birthday gift from the universe and makes us individuals that even a mother doesn't get to know all the secrets of. I suppose that's fair. Otherwise, why would we keep feeding him? TO FIND OUT MORE SECRETS. One has to be motivated.

This morning he opened some presents, the first time he's really be interested in a birthday happening. And has already gotten to express his opinion on a variety of bugs, read a book about maps, pretend to be a fireman (thanks mom & dad), a longhorn (thanks HEB), a pirate (thanks judy & jack), and a balleri-nope (thanks lizzy. we'll explain later).

His smiles are real smiles, and definitely not bowel movements. His frowns are real frowns, and he can even tell us why. We can fix it less, a trend I suspect will continue with time. But he still likes to cuddle us, and kisses still fix boo-boos, so parental powers are still going strong.

His mind makes incredible connections, and he knows he's being a little bit naughty singing at the top of his lungs throughout the house, and knows it is the kind of naughty we'll never interfere with. Here's to many more birthdays, fancy hats, and jumping to breakfast.