Joshua

Trick or treat - it's a baby! Last year, Joshua was born. A Halloween baby! Isn't that like the coolest birthday???

Anyway, my husband AJ and I had only been on the wait list for a baby for barely six months. The adoption process of applications and background checks and home studies took like a year. We were the first gay male couple our Denver adoption agency had ever worked with, although they had worked with a few lesbian couples. They weren't sure what our wait time was going to be, but it was likely to be anywhere from a year to four years.

But then our wildest dreams came true... we'd been picked by a birthmom. It wasn't exactly a smooth sail after being picked. There were a few issues regarding the adoption and some tense moments of will it go through or won't it.... But on November 5, 2006, AJ and I brought Joshua home.

Here we are a year later, and it's been the adventure of a lifetime. Joshua has the most beautiful giggle in the world. We're up to three teeth and two very swollen and bumpy gums. It looks like he's gonna sprout a pair of dentures at any time now. He also can take two to three steps on his own. His favorite thing to do right now is to chew on one of his toys, get it all good and slobbery, and then bring it to you and try to put it in your mouth. This is of great hilarity to him, but pretty disgusting for the dads.

I was the one crying like a baby when I had to take my son Joshua to daycare once I started back to school. (I'm a teacher.) Spending these past three months with him was the greatest time of my life. I brought him downstairs that day, dumped some Cheerios on his high chair, and when he looked up and smiled at me, I just lost it. Totally lost it. Tears and everything.

We received our latest issue of Parents magazine yesterday. It came with a baby Shrek joke cover that asked: "Is Your Baby an Ogre?" and advertised the DVD release of the third movie. Baby Shrek looked an awful lot like a green baby Joshua Craig - kind of cute, kind of funny-lookin'. Does it make me a bad parent to say that?