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Monday, February 9, 2009

2557 days





That is how long I have been working at this job.  Two thousand five hundred and fifty seven days, and counting.  It was that long ago that my baby, my sweet little girl came into our lives.  My first born turns 7 today.  She was born almost exactly on her due date, with just one minute to spare and that says a lot about her in general.  She is very exact, likes to do things just so and has her own way for everything.  She is also the most considerate child and will share all of her stuff without even thinking most of the time.  She is sweet and obedient and very outgoing.  She loves to sing and dance and puts on quite a good performance.  
It has been amazing to watch her grow up and to grow up with her.  I look back and realize what a baby I was when she was born, only 24 years old and married just 2 years.  She changed me in ways I could never have anticipated and prepared me to be a mom.  She was the best introduction to motherhood I could have asked for, the happiest baby on the block.  I was young and naive and she helped me to look past myself and become a nurturer and caregiver.  It was a role I was completely unfamiliar with and I am so thankful that she was my teacher.  
I can remember all of her firsts - her first smile (at Darrel Swan of all people), her first laugh, words like uh-oh and dada, crawling on her 1 yr birthday, steps taken on the day daddy left for 3 weeks in the north.  The first time we took her to the park and let her sit in the swing, the first time we took her swimming in Aunt Felecia's pool, the first time she ate a pickle and sucked it completely dry.  The first time we got a babysitter and I almost cried leaving the house, her first time travelling on a plane, all the times she has been a little flower girl for a wedding, playing dress-up, her first time using the potty, her first day of preschool, her first day of Kindergarten and I didn't cry even though I thought I would ... they are all so fresh in my mind.  Seven years and they are all compacted into memories, photos, videos and journals.  Seven years and now we have a beautiful, articulate young woman who is becoming her own person and hardly needs her mommy anymore!  Two thousand five hundred and fifty seven days, and it really does not get any easier!


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