Happy Birthday, Baby

AJ, sweet little girl, this post is for you.

Five years ago today, my life was indelibly changed.  I like to tell people that I was in labor on the longest day of the year…it makes me feel like a real toughie, even though labor was only 9 hours.  But long is relative when it comes to laboring.

These are the things that I love about you:

1) You’re smart as a whip.

2) You talk like a 16-year-old, and like to use the word “awesome” a lot.  Awesome.

3) You are kind and compassionate, you never met a kid you didn’t like--dogs are another story…

4) You are my inspiration: to keep going, to get out of bed, to watch my words and to hold my tongue.

5) You love to have the Bible read to you.

6) I love it when you sing “How Great is Our God” at the top of your tiny voice.

7) You giggle when you’re tired—just like I did when I was a kid, (and after a long time, my dad, your Big Pops after the 1000^th giggle would get on me about settling down).

8) You’re super-creative, the other day you designed and cut out a castle, colored it and pasted it to another to another piece of paper and then drew on that—pretty great for a 5-year-old

9) You have the most kissable cheeks—ever.
10) You make me proud just to be your mom.

Happy Birthday.