(First a word to Claude: This post contains secret birthday stuff, so you'll have to hide it from Mom 'til Wednesday.)

My gorgeous mother-in-law's birthday is on Wednesday, and so I had all the kids write her a birthday wish this morning before they left for school.

(Let's just ignore the fact that I'm late, late, late in getting this done and am going to have to overnight these little birthday wishes, plus the girls are still wanting to make a "doll fashion spread" and send it along with their cards. I'm not sure what that entails, but they were busy with the camera and accessories all yesterday afternoon. I know, for instance, that there's a page about "What to wear when you have nothing to wear" that involves a shower cap and some terry cloth.)

But I digress.

So I gathered all the cards up and we hurried our way through pancakes and hair do's and sorting the Monday laundry and finding the scarves (!!) (It's supposed to be 80-something today...scarf weather for sure. Heaven help us.) and shuttling them off to their bus stops with kisses and well wishes.

And then I sneaked a peek at their birthday wishes. I couldn't help it.

There were lots of "so, so, so muches" from the girls and a delicious picture from Ethan involving a birthday hat.

And from Caleb there was this:

"The thing that I like about you so much is your laughter. We could use some in the house right now. We're all worried about school..."

And that hit me like a ton of bricks. Which feels a lot like heartache by the way.

Oh my boy.

Sometimes I just forget about childhood.

And so I've changed my plans for the week. This week I have only one thing to do. Laugh. A lot.

And make sure my kids do their fair share of it as well.

I guess we could use some in the house right now.