365 days pass in the blink of an eye

I have always wanted six children. Ben was our caboose. Or so we thought. Then there was this amazing surprise. I feel like Lydia is this wonderful gift I didn't even realize I wanted needed until she was here.


(click on her sweet face for her birth story)

Nicknamed Baby Fireball by her big brother before she was born, it fits her like a glove. She's crazy, this girl of mine. I've never encountered such a sense of humor in a baby. She's funny and she knows it. She revels in it. She makes me laugh then turns and looks to make sure her daddy is noticing how funny she is, too. Over the past few days she has been perfecting her wicked laugh. Like a mad scientist, she cackles. God help us.

She took her first three steps the other day. Not to me. Not to her daddy. Not to an adoring brother or sister. To the step stool. Abie was dragging it away from her to keep her from climbing the three steps to the top and standing on it, waving her arms in triumph. He was destroying her moment. So she walked towards it. She repeated it a few times immediately afterwards but not since then. Her daddy and grandparents will just have to wait until she's good and ready to show them. She knows she can do it. There's nothing to prove.

Billiam jokes that, unlike with Jake (when we were usually the youngest parents in the classroom), with Lydia we will be the old parents. That, by the time she's a teenager we will be half-senile and she will run circles around us, doing whatever she pleases as we nod off in front of the five o'clock news. I don't think it will be all that, but I can't help but think this girly is already running circles around us. But this I know is true: it's going to be a fun ride.

Today we will make carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and you will berate me for taking too long to give you a taste. Happy birthday, Fireball. Take it easy on us.