Seven

Seven years ago, this was us: Michael, me, and our brand new baby boy, Joey.

If memory serves, he came out screaming and crying and didn't stop for pretty much his first whole year. However, the pictures we have tell a different story. Look at that face! Such a sweet boy . . .

I get sentimental on my kids' birthdays. Their babyhoods and childhoods just seem to be zipping by so quickly. I was going through some of Joey's baby pics today, looking for a few to post here, and I came across this one of his Grandma Peggy (Michael's mom) holding a sleeping Joey. I love this picture. She only got to see him a few times before she passed away a little over three years ago. I wish she could have known our kids.

So today that baby boy turned 7 years old. He's quite a kid: quirky, smarter than probably all of the rest of us in the family, adoring brother.

This morning he crawled into bed with us and snuggled up to me, and he was all arms and legs and elbows and knees. That baby softness and pudge is gone. He's a boy now. He hasn't called me "Mommy" in a year - like Kevin, he decided when he turned 6 that he was too old to call us Mommy and Daddy anymore. But I know a couple years from now I will look at pictures of him now and think "Gosh, he was such a baby . . ."
Happy Birthday, my boy. I love you with all of my heart.