Happy Birthday, Baby

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Today, my wee one turns seven. My baby.
And I hate to be all maudlin and cliched, but wha?!?!?

Wasn’t she just born?
I thought she was a toddler!
Isn’t she still in preschool?
Don’t give her the car keys!
Is she going to college on Wednesday???
Stop!!!!

Last night we looked at her baby pictures.
She and her sister found them funny. And cute. 
They don’t know, nor would they understand, that I’m just shattered when I look at those snaps.
But not in a bad way. Y’know what I mean?

I look at those pictures and I can see, in the red lips and fuzzy hair, the beginnings of the girl I’ve got here now.
And I remember every single moment of her teeniness. 
And it seems both like yesterday and like a long, long time ago.

The whole thing just cracks my heart wide open.

Today, this is a girl full of her own wild passions and big enough humour and personality to let the rest of us slide a little.
This is a girl who careens through space — sometimes safely, often not — to see what it feels like.
This is also a girl who can’t put a book down and sleeps like a stone.
This is the girl who tends to the animals in our house, and she’d like to be responsible for most of the wild kingdom, too.
This is a girl who hugs so hard it hurts.

I am shattered not because I want to rewind, to back her away from who she has become.
I am shattered just that we have her, she is partly ours and has been now for seven years.
Seven years.
It’s a blessing almost too big to bear…
 

40 Responses to “Happy Birthday, Baby”

  1. jamarattigan

    What a beautiful post. You have me shattered, too, with your big heart and love for your girl. (Next time, give fair warning, so I can stock up on Kleenex.)
    Hope she has the happiest of birthdays!

  4. Anonymous

    oh dear god, liz- STOP! i’m a mess over here.
    okay, must compose myself and keep on with my day… must not obsess on passing of time and preciousness of childhood….
    or maybe i should, just a little??

  5. kymbrunner

    I think it’s a good thing I write for older kids, lol!

    I’m SOOO not sentimental over my kids growing older. I’m pretty sure when it’s time for them to go away to college, I’ll help pack their bags. Teenagers are, to borrow Melissa Marr’s title, “Wicked Lovely.” Ha! I do love my kids and each age they are and the unique changes another brings.

    Happy Birthday to your baby! KYM

  7. Anonymous

    Cloudscome says:

    Happy birthday to both of you! Another seven years of wonder…

  8. Anonymous

    Re: Happy Birthday Baby

    My baby just turned seven–TEEN! Your words are perfect for her too.

    Camille @ BookMoot.com

  9. Anonymous

    I’m there with ya! My baby is turning seven in March. She is the youngest of my three and I can’t imagine she’ll be entering into second grade next year! I was just changing her diaper last week and teaching her colors yesterday – where did the time fly?

    Amy Hanek
    http://www.houseonthegladehill.blogspot.com

  10. Anonymous

    Last year at this time my son, whose 8, was missing his two front teeth; he looks so much younger in the pictures from then. The baby pictures are so sweet, too, that it sometimes makes me weepy to look at them. And I laugh, too. He was the baby who was going to walk, darn it, just as soon as he could. He had things to do! Places to go! He was just himself from the very beginning. Amazing.

    Susan T.