babygirl's birthday

wowza, fourteen today… i love sharing our birthdays. i remember *that* day, fourteen years ago - the day after my birthday - waking at half past five and doing my polar bear sway thing, and sarah breaking traffic laws to get daddy and me to the hospital ten minutes before you made your sanguine appearance… no wonder i started having homebirths shortly after that… you were apparently a textbook delivery, i still had my lipstick on!! i was overwhelmed at the sight of our beautiful baby… a girl!!!!

it’s surprising how similar we are, you and i. once when you were eighteen months old, you got the giggles in our sunny little dining room at rosamund ave. i started laughing at the sound of your hilarious laughter, and then we all couldn’t stop: my giggle sounds exactly like yours!! we have the same hair and eyes, and the same way of viewing the world: optimistic and rather blonde, and of course we both have a chocolate addiction. our family photo albums record that your first decade was spent mostly in dress-up clothes, fairy wands, hair ups, zany movie lines, and total pinky cuteness. and now you're becoming a woman.

i love the way you dance and sing all day, you have a beautiful voice and a wonderfully expressive nature. you make our hearts sing. and you’re still The Princess: you totally have Daddy and all the brothers wrapped firmly around your little finger.

may all your wishes come true, today and every day.