A sixth birthday in Mongolia

originally uploaded by Wanderings.

Valentine's Day doesn't exist in this family other than as an excuse to put red and pink hearts on Casey's birthday cards/cake. That's right -- Casey was born on the day of love and, at least thus far, has been a good sport about sharing his birthday with the gushiest and (dare I say it?) girliest of holidays.

Casey, aka "Baatar" (which means hero in Mongolian), may be the most eclectic of the kids and thus is difficult to describe. Where do I even begin?

He is easygoing and rarely gets angry when asked to share something with a sibling or help out with the chores or change seats so that one of the older folks can have the big chair. He's quite musical and is prone to spending hours listening to the same handful of songs over and over again. You can often find him sitting at the computer singing along to anything from TobyMac to the Madagascar soundtracks to The Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz". He also has a sense of humor that's impossible to describe except to say that if you knew my brother as a kid, you'd have a sense of the dry, goofy, sometimes downright strange jokes Casey makes on a daily basis.

Casey is genuine, bright, quick to apologize when he's done something wrong or hurt someone's feelings, and slow to get angry (whether he's losing a game or being followed around by his little sister). As with all of the kids (and especially the ones I didn't babysit), I'm grateful for this time to know him better and am excited to see who he becomes in the coming years.