Our oldest girl is 11 today.  Utterly amazed at how the years just fly on by…thankful for video and photos because my grey matter fails to keep up in the memory department and these tools are helpful, to me.  Before I pull out the Sudoku and crossword puzzles and purchase the Ginkgo to shore up the old brain, I am thankful that I DO remember our children’s birthDAYS.  So far.  Which is good.

11 years ago we had 3 & 5-year-old fellas and no idea what the babe in my belly was.  I can tell you that I was OVER being pregnant and happily accepted my OB-GYN’s offer of induction.  Call me wimpy, I don’t care, I can tell you I did NOT enjoy being pregnant.  Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled about the baby; physically it was a huge cross for me.  I envied those “happy” preggers, for me it was all about being a weeble wobble and heartburn.  Anyhooo….he said induction, I said yes, please.

Remember these??
Image cred

wobble much…yes, yes I did. 

5:00 a.m. and my sister came to be with the boys and we headed to the hospital.  I’ll spare you the details (mostly because it was all wait and contract and epidural and wait) but it was definitely my “shortest” labor with the regular contractions coming on about 10 a.m. and by 2 p.m. when the nurse practitioner told me not to not push yet because she wasn’t ready…I told her she better get some gloves on quickly.  2:05 p.m. “It’s a girl!”  My response:  “A Girl?  What do we do with a girl???”  It took about 2 milliseconds to figure out.

What a sweetie pie she is.  Sensitive.  Caring. Helpful.  Curious.  Loves to snuggle at night.  Quality time with mom or dad.  Minecraft is her new favorite game.  Running is a new little challenge with her goal on her first 5K at the end of the month.  Middle school comes next year.  Girl school drama has started this year.  Tears have been wiped and she holds her ground and stays true to who she is and not what “popular” is.  Oh, this girl.  She has our heart.  Hook, line and sinker!!

Happy birthday, sweet girl!  We love you more every day!!!  XOXO