birthday!

my sweet boy turned 3 on saturday.
three.
one second ago, i was meeting him for the first time in the hospital.
i was exhausted. exhilarated. scared out of my mind. overjoyed.
then i blinked -
and here we are. celebrating three.


instead of a precious tiny baby with wrinkly toes and stinky hands
i now have a wormy, squirmy, curious toddler
who loves thomas and dinosaurs and cheese and juice.
when he's afraid of the dark, he asks us to pray.
he can sing every line of chris tomlin's
"our God is greater"
and takes special delight in singing the beats in the rhythmic bridge.


he can count to twenty and sings his abc's 
at the very very top of his lungs.
he loves his dog riley and his cat toby -
even if he does chase the cat with his buzz lightyear phaser gun.
;)


we rang in his third year with 
pancakes in pj's 
('in my pj's, mama? in my pj's?!')
a candyland themed birthday party
cake. so much cake!
and cookies in bed.


he is our pride and joy. the love of our lives.
it has been our special privilege to have been trusted with
his little life.
he is our most important responsibility
and our favorite little boy.


happy birthday, my gavin joshua. 
you are so loved.