Seven years ago I walked into Anna Jacques maternity ward, laughing over some joke Natalie had made. In fact, I was so cheerful that the on-duty nurses were suspicious that I was actually in labor, until they checked me in and found out I was already 4 cm dilated. They just didn't think I looked like I was in enough pain to be in labor.
The truth was it did hurt, but I didn't care. I was so happy my baby girl was on the way.
She came so quickly that she aspirated some amniotic fluid on the way out, and turned a little blue. She was fine, but whenever she wasn't with me they kept sticking her in the baby baker, to help her dry out a little before we took her home.
In retrospect, that story--what we might call the very first "story of Charlotte"--set the tone for all her future stories. Charlotte is my deceptively easy child, who sometimes trips me up just because of how easy she is in general. :)
It was a blessing and a wonder to take her home and find that she, unlike her brother, was interested in sleeping. She had a tiny, reddish mohawk for her first three months, until her hair grew too long and started flopping over from it's own weight. And she was always firm in her opinions, even when her only manner of communicating them was in baby noises.
She smiled very early.
As she grew it was clear she adored her big brother. She followed him everywhere, and her most heartbreaking moment of all time was the day he left her to go to school. Who could have guessed that, five years down the road, they would fight like Cats and Dogs? And yet, if there's ever an outside threat, they band together in an instant. They come at the world in different ways, but they're totally willing to take it on together.
Charlotte has grown to be a beautiful child, creative and funny, energetic and strong willed. She wears her heart on her sleeve, which I both delight in and ache over, because I know how much it can hurt when your feelings are so exposed, and yet I also know how much joy it can bring. She does everything with her whole heart, and while that can be trying when what she's doing is "throwing a fit and falling in", most of the time that means that she is awe inspiring. She doesn't know the meaning of half measures.
My darling baby is getting bigger, and sometimes I look at her old pictures and sigh for that baby face. I miss her little girl grammar and the sweet inquisitiveness that has become a more demanding search for knowledge. But I cannot deny that her growing maturity is also a delight, and when she can see I'm having a hard day and comes to hug me and tell me she loves me, my heart is so full of joy over the wonderful person she is growing to be.
Happy birthday, Charlotte. I love you to the moon and back, and back again, for infinity.
No comments:
Post a Comment