Happy 17th Birthday to our baby girl!

I remember a day 16 1/2 years ago like it was just yesterday. Our two older daughters were sprawled out on the floor on their stomachs, their feet in the air waggling, with markers and coloring pages all around them. Our six month old daughter had just started to scoot around on her belly and was dabbling in 'trouble' around the house. On this particular day I put her on the floor near her sisters and it was the fastest I had seen her scoot yet. Her destination? The markers and paper her sisters were coloring with..her mission? To destroy the pages and markers with drool and play tug of war with her older sisters for each and every marker and she fought hard for them...grunting and tearing into the next one if her sisters won the battle. Basically, she was fighting with them as best a six month old baby could. My mouth dropped open...she had a temper even then. I looked at P and the older girls and said, "Man, this girl is gonna get her way in life and be quite the handful!"

Today is her 17th birthday and I have to say that I read that entire situation correctly. Our youngest daughter is and has always been a fighter. She is quite spoiled but she would say differently. She was doted on by her older sisters and her father has grown very attached to her over the last couple of years and allowed her quite a few free passes and probably the biggest contributing spoiling culprit was me....yeah, she was my girlie girl. I had to do her hair every day in Pebbles Flinstone style, dress her in the most girlie of clothes, and coddled her probably more than I should have. They do say Karma is a bitch and I have to agree cuz I'm paying for it now.

She is a spitfire! Not afraid to voice her opinions or to argue with her parents; not afraid to punch her little brother who is now as tall as her and could probably kick my butt. If she doesn't like or agree with something she isn't afraid to let the world know...yeah, she's definitely our kid. But underneath all of that she has the kindest heart--she is very sensitive and occasionally, even now, big gator tears will well up in her big brown eyes as she tries very hard to fight it reminding me of the very reason I hovered over her so much when she was just a wee one.

Throughout the years she struggled a bit with grades; mostly middle school because of the 'culture shock' of the larger number of kids. High school came and she blossomed academically. Mostly A's with the occasional bump in History or Geography but at the end of each year she magically comes home with a report card she is so proud of. She reads like her father and finishes books within a day of getting them, is smart as a whip, and could argue Obama under the table! Yep, a young Conservative girl with lots of common sense mixed with a brain like her father's! What a combo and one all of our kids have.

On this day 17 years ago I remember putting off labor telling the nurses and the midwife NOT to break my water because I wasn't ready for the pain....I wasn't progressing so they told me I had to make the decision. It was a really relaxed situation....with a midwife everything was really calm and quite different. We had my friend come in the room with our two older girls so they could be part of the experience...I gave birth to this little peanut with a head full of black hair and a scrunched up face and immediately fell in love!

She lit up all our lives the instant she came into this world. Her big sisters were in awe, and I think my friend shed a tear as well. Never in my life did I imagine she would turn into this dangerously beautiful woman she has become...that she would be so strong in heart, soul, and mind yet so soft and sensitive to the smallest thing. Never did I imagine that we would all dote on her the way we do..protect her to within an inch of her life and that she would be as bold as her parents when push comes to shove.

She used to cry and believe that we didn't love her..and this was just a couple of years ago. She used to say we didn't care about her and that she wasn't very smart. God if only she could see herself through our eyes. She is one amazing woman and P and I couldn't be more proud of yet another of our kids.

This my Sweet Dolly is a tribute to you on your 17th birthday. May your wishes come true and the next year of your life give you as much happiness and joy as you have given all of us since the day you entered our lives! Happy Birthday!!!!!