My nephew William turns 5 today. It seems we have gone from this:

to this:

in the blink of an eye.

And on this, the 5th anniversary of William’s birth, I’d like to acknowledge once again, as I did last year, that it is Audrey’s 5th anniversary of becoming a mother, too.

Here’s what I wrote…

I always knew that Audrey would be a phenomenal mother. She was always like a (very protective) second mother to me growing up, including me in things she did with her friends, and keeping tabs on me no matter where I was.

Watching Audrey experience her pregnancy with William was so beautiful. She couldn’t wait to meet her little guy, and the love she felt for that little miracle inside her belly was so evident. She simply glowed throughout those 9 months.

And when she welcomed William into the world, becoming a mother, that glow just got brighter and brighter.

It’s hard now to remember Audrey as a mother of one child. That time period was rather brief, as she became pregnant with Alexander just 3 months after William arrived! But that just shows how motherhood came so naturally to her. She knew that the love she felt for William would just multiply with another child… and she obviously has applied this same logic again and again, as she quickly became a mother of 4!

One thing I love about Audrey as a mother is that she has not lost any of her sense of humor. I have seen many new moms become so consumed with motherhood that they lose their ability to just relax and have fun. They practically become different people. This is not the case with Audrey.

Audrey is seriously one of the funniest people I have ever met. When we were younger and had to entertain each other in the car during long trips (there were no DVD players! The horror!), we would play a little game and see who could make the other laugh first. Audrey would always win. I cannot help but crack up whenever I’m with her.

So of course, it just makes sense that Audrey finds ways to laugh with her boys every day. They make her laugh. She makes them laugh. If one of them does or says something funny – especially unintentionally – we crack up together.

And that is one of the things I admire about Audrey… she finds such humor in motherhood; in the mundane and in the craziness alike. With 4 boys, one can imagine that life can get pretty hectic in her household. At any given moment, one or all of her boys might be playing chase around the house… or throwing Legos and blocks around the living room… or coloring anywhere but on construction paper… or building train tracks… or asking for – maybe demanding – a drink or snack.

But I have never seen Audrey get out-of-control frazzled with all the activity and/or destruction going around her. Instead, she’ll smile one of those sarcastic, isn’t-life-grand smiles (we call it the “Daddy face” – inside joke!) and once again, we’ll just crack up at the absurdity of it all. Because, really? 4 boys 4 and under? It’s absurd!

And I know Audrey wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Audrey gets a lot of comments on her blog like, “I don’t know how you do it!” Sometimes I don’t either. Her ability to multi-task and get everything done astounds me. How she can even think straight baffles me. And yet, she never, ever complains.

So many times people have told me, “You’re so smart to wait to have kids. They’re so much work.” (Many times, this comes from parents with one child!) I have never heard Audrey say anything like this. If anything, she’ll hold one of her boys in her arms, hug and kiss him (and get a hug and kiss back!) and say to me, “Doesn’t this make you want to have kids?”

You can imagine the (sometimes rude) comments Audrey gets from some people about how crazy she is for having so many children. But having a big family is something she has always wanted. She enjoys being surrounded by all the love that comes with having a big family.

Audrey’s boys adore her. And Audrey adores her boys. That glow she had when she was pregnant with William… that glow that just beamed brighter once he entered the world… it radiates from her times 4 now.

Today is a special day, indeed. While we celebrate the anniversary of William’s birth, we also celebrate the anniversary of Audrey’s journey into motherhood. It is a role she was clearly made for.

I just love to see my sister fill this role so beautifully, and I thought she deserved some recognition on this special day.