Happy Birthday, Chandler!

I can't believe he is 8!! Surely it was just yesterday he was born! He is the easiest kid to have around. So many times I don't even know he is here. He just takes care of himself and plays independently all day—but that is a far cry from how he was for the first five months of his life. So many days in the first few months I felt like turning him back in. I couldn't get him to stop crying. He cried all day and cried all night and few were the moments of quiet. So hard. But something happened about 5 months and from then on, he was the best of babies.

He is my sweet, sentimental kid. He is my first to say things like, “Thanks for working hard to make our dinner, Mom.” He is one who loves, loves, loves family histories. He has all of the books his grandparents have made by his bed and he reads from them often. He is strongly sentimental about things too. A couple of years ago when we sold our old blue car, he cried buckets—for days. (while the rest of us were exclaiming 'good riddance'!)

He is also the laughter in our house. He has got the cutest contagious laugh and a keen sense of humor. When he was younger he loved to tell us jokes. These were not funny jokes at all. They were something like “Why did the horse eat his hay? Because there was a stop sign on the road.” But after he told the joke he laughed and laughed in his cute little laugh and we would bust up because he thought he was so funny. Now that he is older, he is still funny, just in a different way.

Today was his first day of scouts and he was so excited! He worked really hard to get his Bobcat requirements passed off for his first Den Meeting. We are blessed every day because of him! Happy birthday, Chan--we love you!