Stream of Consciousness Birthday Wishes

9 years old this week. Apparently this is the half-way point of our time with her at home, you know if all goes according to plan. In another 9 years, it’s quite possible she’ll be packing up her belongings and headed off for college in a matter of months. I’m am not a very emotional person by nature, but writing that out and looking at her pictures while I do so, is breaking my heart a little and well, here I am crying at my keyboard. It seems almost unfair that we step into this craziness called motherhood so unaware of what is going to be asked of us and what lies ahead–the stretching of our souls, the initial discomfort, the love, the joy, the roller coaster, a new normal–only to come to love motherhood and our children more than we even understand and then one day, they’re just gone. Not gone, gone. But not in our home, not in their beds reading a book, not on the computer sneaking a game, not outside climbing trees… right now only 9 more years sounds impossibly unfair.

She is such a wonderful kid, my heart beats out of my chest thinking about all the things I love about her, all the ways she has changed my life and all she means to our family. In addition to being her birthday week, she also reached a goal of practicing her violin for 100 days in a row! So exciting! And let me tell you, this was with minimal reminding on my part.

Last week as we’ve been gearing up for her birthday we started talking about the day she was born–and then Lamp wanted to hear about the day she was born too. We’ve talked about it before, but I don’t think your own birth story (if it’s a relatively good one I suppose) will ever get old. They were both giddy, smiling ear to ear as we told them about their arrivals, about being placed on my chest, about crying and red faces and a new life for everyone. Sometimes it’s easy to think a baby is a baby is a baby. But every baby is a new person that has never existed before! That’s crazy! And if you helped bring that person into existence, it’s even crazier!

PSP has also been enjoying stories of our time in NYC when she was a toddler and a baby. I’m trying to explain to her that it was like a second ago, and don’t you remember? She doesn’t. And I realize that it’s only recently that these stories of her babyhood feel far enough away to be of interest to her. And so I tell these stories over and over again as a treat for both of us. She gets to hear all about her wonderful entrance into the world and about those first few years and lucky, lucky me…I get to relive it all again.

Happy Birthday PSP. You are an amazing girl and we could not be more proud to be your parents.

Mom

Birth stories were a rather new phenomenon to me with the blogging age. I certainly didn’t grow up knowing my own birth story–still don’t really! All I know is that my mom slipped and fell on the ice which finally put her into labor almost 2 weeks late–but as I have shared these stories with my own girls it seems only natural that you would share and talk about these stories with your kids. I’m curious, do you know your own birth story? Even it’s it’s rather straight forward and unremarkable? Do your children know theirs?Do you think it’s important to know your birth story?