about a boy. a very special boy.

For the past 24 hours, the man of the hour has been this little guy.
Judah.

He was born when I was in God only knows what state, four years ago today. I was touring at the time and while my sister-in-law, Rebekah, was having him–I mean, literally in labor–another sister-in-law, Darby, called me up on the phone and just placed it right next to the bed where Rebekah lay.

So I stayed up all night, in the bathroom of God only knows what hotel room, and listened to Judah come into the world.

Some people look at me like I am a little crazy when I tell them this story; others look at me like I am me. Guess which ones know me? The latter. They get it. They understand why I would clutch the phone to my ear, pressing against it so hard that my lobe is all hot and achy (and some of you know how much I hate having hot ears); and I’m hardly breathing for fear that any sound I make might keep me from hearing the first sound of Judah.

And now he’s four and brilliant and I often bite my teeth around him, because I find him irresistibly adorable.  Oh, and you know, since it was his birthday and all, I was excited to pick out a gift for him. And I won’t tell you his whole wish list this year, but I will tell you that it included:

• A pilates mat (um, obvi. because every four year old has one).
• A Native American costume, complete with spear (who doesn’t want that?).
• A bra (yes, that’s what I said: a bra. And no, he doesn’t need one, but then again, neither did I when I first started wearing one).
• Make-up (we do photo shoots round here, you know).
• And dresses (the hand-me-downs from his sisters might just be getting old).

Now, that list is a good one, but I took a little departure from it anyway. Because I am just gonna say it: I came up with a pretty good idea all on my own. See the little guy loves to dance. And so do I…And so I thought it’d be special if I got him his very first pair of these.

Aren’t they so pretty? And they’re the real deal. Leather. Black. Capezio. None of that cheap stuff you get at KMart when you’re not sure if your kid really wants to dance or is just in love with the idea of wearing pink tulle for a whole hour every week.

And when he opened them and tried them on, he lit up like Christmas morning. Like Christmas morning when it’s snowing outside, even.

And then proceeded to do a pretty fierce little tendu.

And folks, he’s got feet for days.

No pressure, but if he does want to dance, well he certainly is not gonna have a hard time pointing his feet.

And sometimes I fish for compliments when I am joking around–especially with the people with whom I am close. So I asked Judah which of his aunts he thought was maybe the best dancer, and that little stinker thought for a second…started smiling in a way that should have warned me, I guess, and then said, Mandy! And now Mandy is, I am sure, quite a good dancer in her own right, but well, she’s not spent all the money for all the lessons like I have, so…

But we all cracked up laughing and it served me right for having asked him that leading question in the first place.

Oh, and someone asked for picture proof of the invisalign I was talking about. Sorry to say, it doesn’t look that impressive…

But my nieces sure do.

Look impressive, I mean.

And so does my sister. Always.
She is a jewel among women and if she were right next to me this minute, I’d start singing The Sister Song that annoys her to no end, just to make sure she knows that I love her.

And speaking of love, we went to the Please Touch Museum yesterday. And a good joke about that little title is that my mom often confuses the name and calls it the Please Touch ME Museum. Hahahahahaha, no thanks. Going to that museum, I mean. I’ll touch my mom, though. I mean, hugs and stuff like that. But we don’t have to go all the way to a museum to do that.

But basically every room is a different hands-on experience and when we went into the shoe store I learned three things:

• my feet are a size 8.
• my feet are on the wider side of feet.
• and I really wish this shoe were mine:

It is perfect.

And it fit me perfectly.

And it’s yellow, which I know you know, but I had to say it anyway.

But there was only one and it wasn’t an actual shoe store, just a pretend one, and boy, I wish I could have walked out wearing them. Oh, well.

And back to Judah.

He’s a special guy and I knew at the very first sound of him four years ago that he was magic and everything that’s transpired since has only confirmed that suspicion.