7.29.2017

Happy Birthday Brooke

Don't Blink...

14 years ago you entered my life and it has been the best journey.
I was 21 years old, clueless, and riding waves of contractions like a complete amateur. There was walking, there were tears,  and there was so much fear. I had no idea what I was in for. At all.

And then, at 8:54 am on July 29th, 3 weeks before her due date, my in a hurry little girl came into the world only 2 hours after my water broke. She was so quiet for the first few minutes, but then filled the room with her rage. She was strong enough to work her way out of the bundled blanket that the nurses so efficiently wrapped her in, and to this day she still sleeps with her limbs sprawled across the bed.



Loud, fiercely independent, and taking up as much space as possible since the moment she was born. Just like her mama.
I remember this feeling of absolute perfect love crashing over me. I was so incredibly lucky to not feel a moment of sadness after having her. I beamed for days. She was here. I made her. I birthed her. I felt like I didn't know what I was doing, but it was clear that my body was a professional. I was a rock star. I could not believe that this flawless human was made from such a tiny seed. It was amazing. She was amazing. Since I had Brooke, there is nobody who can tell me that miracles do not happen. She is my proof.

As much as I loved her, I was terrified. I was so afraid that I would ruin her somehow. That I would do the wrong thing, or say the wrong words, or set the wrong example. Along with love crashed responsibility. I had a duty to mould this 7lb, pink sleeper wearing infant into a functioning adult. This was day one, and I had so many days to go. So many opportunities to screw up. 
 


Every mother wants their child to become healthy, beautiful, sweet and lovely. I also consider myself to be a very blessed mother because  I am blessed with a healthy, sweet baby girl. I will be very happy if I get chance to do everything for her happy life so that  i want a fairy house for my little fairy baby girl who is my pride and joy!

And then I blinked. And she was finished kindergarten. 
Grade 1, 2,3,4 and she can read, and she can write, and she has lost five teeth, middle school then comes high school in september..
She is polite and kind and silly. She loves giraffes and has multiple best friends and despite how things may appear, she adores her brother.

When she graduates high school, she wants to be a music teacher. Not a programmer like her dad, not a princess or a ballerina. A career in Music. I realize that this will change in the next 4 years, but I am so proud of the way she makes up her own mind.

She is still loud and independent. She tests the rules and she questions everything. She is unbelievably bossy, not surprising as Brooke is a  leader.  

As much as it makes me want to tear my hair out, I am so glad that she is her own person. Nobody pressures Brooke to do anything she doesn't want to do. I desperately hope she holds on to these traits with white knuckles. She will need that strong will in the years to come.

There are days that I love her so much I could burst. There are days that I feel like all I do is yell. The latter are the days that I realize I am raising a smaller version of myself. I have yet to decide whether this is good or bad.
But at the end of the day, 14 years in, I do know one thing for certain; Brooke, my first born, has changed and molded me as much as I have her.

I did not know unconditional love or happiness or rage or fear until she came into my life. I did not know hope or strength or responsibility or absolute pure exhaustion. I didn't know I could laugh so hard or yell so loud or function on such a small amount of sleep. I did not know what it was like to be so sure that I would give my own life for another human being.
I taught Brooke how to eat with a fork, how to dress herself, how to pee in the potty. She has taught me so much more in her fourteen years than I could ever write down.

In short, she has taught me how to be a mother.

Most importantly, she has taught me to be afraid to blink because with just a blink she is 14. 

Happy Birthday to my baby. I love you so much. 



8 comments

  1. It really is amazing what our kids teach us as mothers. Happy Birthday Brooke!

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  2. Amazing! Very true how our kids teach us as moms. Happy Birthday to your beautiful daughter

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  3. The love and responsibility of parenting are the two parts that continually blow me away. I hope your daughter had a great birthday!

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  4. This is beautiful (I teared a little reading this). If a parent has this much love for her child, how much more God must love and adore us...!

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  5. Happy Birthday to your not so little girl! Time sure flies!

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  6. I never truly understood the phrase "time flies" until I had a child of my own. We're 16 months in, and she has grown so fast in such a short time. Happy Birthday to your little girl :)

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  7. Happy birthday to beautiful Brooke. Yes, time does fly. And yes, our kids teach us so very much.

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  8. Oh how beautiful, it is so awesome how much more we learn from our children compared to what we teach them. They grow so fast!

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