the craziest/coolest thing

so the other day i found a package on my porch. it was addressed to hyde. it was a fairly good sized package. certainly this package wasn't just a nice card and a cute outfit. some thought had gone into this one. i thought to myself, sweet! can't wait to see what's inside for the little man! i wonder who sent it...

the return address was from a person and place i'd never heard of before. that's interesting, i thought. and even more fun with a hint of dangerous... mmm, mystery package! so i opened the box, pushed the wrapped contents aside to look for a card, anything that might give me a clue as to where this package had come from. but my search left me empty handed. no card. no note. no nothing.

i carefully unwrapped a portion of the contents to find blocks. big wooden blocks with brightly colored numbers on them. blocks that were way to big to be played with by little hands. i was thoroughly confused (and also glad it wasn't a bomb). so what to do with these cool colored blocks... decoration perhaps? okay, a cute decoration to put in his room.

and then i found a card. a business card from the maker of the blocks which showed a picture of them in use. they are meant be used in photos to keep track of ages and stages. oh man, this is GENIUS! i thought. total genius and so dang cute!!! but still, the card was generic and offered only the name of the company who made them. all i could think of was how in the world did these people just find out i had boy named hyde? do they randomly call hospitals all over the country and ask for someone born on a random day and then send a gift? how did they know i would take a bazillion photos of my children and die for this gift? who do i know in... wherever, Ohio... no one! this doesn't make any sense! does hyde already have a stalker? was i chosen as a winner in a drawing someone so kindly entered me in? confusion coupled with immediate brainstorming of the best set up i could create to use the blocks as soon as possible completely took over my mind for the next 30 seconds until it became just the brainstorming part. i again searched for additional information in/on/around the box that would tell me why we had received such a wonderful gift.

to this day friends i still don't have the answer. but i sure am happy that this "random" gift addressed to exactly hyde van orden at exactly our street address exactly 3 weeks after he was born showed up that day. i mean, come on... they're perfect. almost as perfect as the kid.