Birthday Girl

Tomorrow (ok, technically today), Alyssa turns five years old. FIVE. I still call her baby girl, but I probably should stop - she's far removed from babyhood at this point. Even though her behavior sometimes argues against that fact.

One of my very favorite stories is the first five minutes of her life. I had a C-section, and she came out crying, which is a good thing. They wrapped her up, put her on my chest, and she screamed her head off. J and I started talking to her, and she immediately stopped crying. When we stopped talking, she started crying again. And when I started talking again, she stopped. She knew our voices. She knew my voice. And that was enough to calm her down in the first few minutes of life. It was amazing to me.

I'm not sure why that little occurrence seems so incredible to me, but it does. It wasn't magic - God knows she'd listened to me yell at Benjamin for the previous 9 months. As J said today, she probably thought HER name was Benjamin when she came out. Or, more to the point, "BenjaMIN!"

But she recognized our voices, even though she knew little else at that point. It was just amazing to me, and so special.

Of course, now she recognizes my voice and occasionally chooses to ignore it. She's stubborn, bull headed, a little devious, and funny as hell. She's still 18 months younger than Benjamin, which I occasionally forget. But she's lost all of her baby fat, and pretty much even her baby belly. It was there a few months ago, but when I looked a week ago, it was gone. She's a daredevil on her bike (even with training wheels), and is usually willing to try new things (see: artichoke leaves at dinner tonight).

I have no doubt that when she's older, we're going to be scrambling to keep up with her. And she's gonna get into all sorts of trouble. My hunch is that she'll be quite the challenge when she's in high school.

I think I'll just enjoy the young years for a while, and be happy to have some time to spend with her now. While I'm still closer to the time that my voice was soothing, and not yet to the time where I'm sure my voice will irritate the crap out of her. 'Cause isn't that what being a teenager is all about?