Birthday Girl

"Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time."  ~Jean Paul Richter

We went and had a big party for Maeve this weekend, our big birthday girl.  My mother asked me if I thought she knew all the presents were for her; I told her Maeve assumes everything that enters this house and is within her reach is for her, so yes.  But she got some great gifts: lots of people gave her books, because they know Maeve and they know me.  But there were some clothes, lots of Sesame Street stuff, and some interactive electronics, too. One friend did a painting of a dinosaur for Maeve's room, which is very special.

I had been holding up all right until the day before the party, when I drove Maeve around doing errands.  I was listening to an old cd mix I'd made for our wedding, and a song from Disney's Robin Hood came on.  These lyrics suddenly caught in my throat: "Love, it seems like only yesterday you were just a child at play" and I felt like I was celebrating Maeve's sixteenth birthday instead of her first.  People tell you how fast your baby's childhood will fly, and although I disbelieved them at first, now it harrows me.

But being at Maeve's party, comforting her when she got overwhelmed by the huge crowd of people that love her, I was just grateful that I have done my best to enjoy, or at least fully experience, every last day of this first year we've spent together.  And although what I hear right this second is the sound of my daughter inexplicably not taking her morning nap, I still manage some excitement at what this year will bring us.

Blurry, but we were dancing!