Gideon, my youngest child of three, turned one year old today. We sang, had cupcakes, and gave him a little something. While our simple festivities were going on it struck me that this birthday party looked very different than when my first child turned a year old. It seemed like such a big deal to me and my wife then, such that we felt obligated (not in a bad way) to celebrate differently, to some, even over the top.<\/p>\n
After our first child, Ephraim, we wondered how it would be possible for us to ever love another child as much.
\nWhen we found out we were pregnant with Ephraim\u2019s brother, Noah, it was as if we discovered vast reservoirs of love and joy that we had no idea even existed. But again, we felt, beyond blessed and it was as if then, after two children, we had actually reached the maximum capacity of our love and joy for little ones of our own. But we couldn\u2019t have been more wrong. Gideon, our third, made us realize that.<\/p>\n
Today, we gave Gideon a toy. He finally opened it up, and he probably did like it, or perhaps it was just the thrill of ripping into the mystery, it was hard to tell, because almost immediately, he went right back to playing and celebrating something much more familiar. We set the day apart with cupcakes, a flame, a song, and wrapping paper, but my son was more interested in something that I know for a fact he will love far and beyond any of those things. Something Ephraim didn\u2019t have at his big birthday party\u2014brothers.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0don\u2019t feel bad about our miniature festivities today. Not because he is only one and not because he probably won\u2019t even remember it. I don\u2019t feel bad for Gideon because I have\u00a0come to realize\u00a0that every child added to our family equation, multiplies and magnifies the\u00a0daily<\/i>\u00a0joy and celebration our family gets\u00a0to experience.<\/p>\n
I believe we are finally catching on. We are beginning to understand that our love and our joy are as infinite as our Father who gives them every morning and every season. Gideon isn\u2019t getting a raw deal for his less than over-the-top celebration today, because in reality, what was over-the-top with one child, is a standard of joy that is constantly being met and surpassed by our family.<\/p>\n
I expect the dynamic\u00a0will continue to evolve\u00a0with time as the equation changes. But right now, every day at minimum, has the hint of a party and most days are a down-right carnival. Our boys right now are 4, 3 and 1 and they know better than me and my wife that the joy of waking up every morning is a perfectly sufficient\u00a0excuse for a party, and that such joy should be expressed loudly. They are sill young and innocent and their imaginations, unlike ours, haven\u2019t been tamed by the shushing or worn-down by the\u00a0repetition.<\/p>\n
Ephraim, Noah, and Gideon are more like my Heavenly Father than I am in many many ways. Every morning He says \u201cdo it again\u201d and every time, it pleases Him.<\/p>\n
Happy 1st birthday my Gideon. May your imagination stay wild and the wonder never leave your eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gideon, my youngest child of three, turned one year old today. We sang, had cupcakes, and gave him a little something. While our simple festivities were going on it struck me that this birthday party looked very different than when my first child turned a year old. It seemed like such a big deal to me and my wife then such that we felt obligated (not in a bad way) to celebrate differently, to some, even appearing over the top. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-parenting"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_4030.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5C2eY-HJ","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}