Three years ago today, I started learning an important lesson about love. Our daughter, Taylor Grace Carden, was born, and I learned that the love a father feels for his children isn’t particularly comparable across kids. It doesn’t mean anything to ask whether I love Taylor Grace “more” than Jacob or “less” than David. I love all three of them in different ways.

She’s “Taylor” because it’s my wife’s maiden name. She’s “Grace” because grace–God’s unmerited favor–conquers sin. She loves cooking, she loves pretending to cook, she loves planning pretend and real parties and picnics, and she’s now addicted to “My Cupcake Addiction” on YouTube. If you have followed me on Twitter or Facebook, you are probably familiar with some of her wit and wisdom:

Me: “Taylor Grace, would you fight Daddy for the chocolate doughnut?”
Taylor Grace: “Yeah.”

I discuss one of our recent adventures in a post for my friend Jason Womack’s blog here.*

Happy Birthday, Taylor Grace. I would love to come to your party. And you can have the chocolate doughnut.

*-Disclosure, not sure if this is obligatory, but just to be safe: I have done contract work for the Jason Womack Company in the past and am working with Jason on several projects, but I have received no compensation for mentioning him on EconLog.