This morning, I blow up pink, green and purple balloons, string lavender and spring green streamers in the dining room and decorate your chair.
Today is August 5th. You are the birthday girl, and I am thinking about you.
About how you christened yourself “Lala” because you could not say your name, and how it’s stuck because you — you are like a song.
About four years of steps and cries, hand-holding and a deep little voice, walks under the trees, favorite board games and funny one-liners.
About your smile and the silly expression you like to make for the camera with hands up next to your face, head tilted, big eyes, mouth wide open.
About the delight you bring to your sisters and how much they love to be with you.
I am thinking about how you responded to seeing the double amputee runner from South Africa on the Olympic coverage last night. How when you’d heard the story of Oscar Pistorius, you asked if you and Papa could pray for him and then you drew a picture of Oscar, joyous with arms wide, and his dad and mom, too.
I am thinking about your tender heart, the free way you give compliments (“Your dress is so pretty,” “I like your hair-do,” “You are funny”), the way you say “eeeeeee” when you give a big squeezing hug and how much you like to change your outfits.
I am thinking about when you were two, and we were camping with friends, and you shoveled fruit in your mouth faster than I could track, and I swatted the bees away from your sweet stickiness, and a yellow jacket made its way into your mouth on a chunk of food. I knew because you cried an angry cry, and then you pulled out the chewed-up mouthful and tossed it on your tray, and there was the yellow jacket.
After I’d squashed it and removed the stinger from your lip and stopped worrying that you’d have an allergic reaction in a remote place, we all laughed at how you seemed much more angry that the bee had interrupted your meal than that you’d been stung.
Man, you were tough, and indignant.
This morning, I am remembering our first days and how your birth was so difficult that we stayed in bed for a long time so I could recover. I am remembering how you were, and still are, the little snuggler I prayed for. You laid on my chest and nestled under my chin and you loved being face to face, I could tell right away.
I am thinking of how quickly the days from two to three and then from three to four have gone, how much I’ve forgotten, and how I wish I could capture every memory of your round cheeks and perfect hands and wavy hair. Every memory of your caring eyes and giggles at slapstick, and string them across the sky like streamers.
Then I remember the quote on our dear friends’ refrigerator — the one from Cesare Pavese that says, “We do not remember days, we remember moments.”
This feels so true as I look at the purple, green and pink across the ceiling, as I wait for you to wake.
We love all the days we live with you. We treasure all the moments we remember.
We love you beyond all imagining.
We thank God for you.
Happy birthday, Lala.
Connecting through the power of stories written, spoken and lived
Such a sweet tribute to your dear little one! Warms my heart! Have a wonderful day celebrating!
Thanks, Darcy! Xoxo
What sweetness expressed by a Mom for her daughter……….the first thing I saw when I woke up this a.m. Made my morning……and makes me think of the verse “This is the day the Lord has made; rejoice and be glad in it”. Certainly there was great rejoicing in your family the day of her birth and now the celebration continues four years later. I love how you and Ali make birthdays so special in your families and your ‘poured on paper thoughts’ will bless your child in all the years ahead. Such a great idea to write down what’s on your heart — wonderful gift for them to treasure as they grow. p.s. HAVE FUN TODAY !
Thank you so much, Mary! Blessings to you. We had a great day — such a special time celebrating our little one. Yes, our family delights in birthdays, and my sis’s celebrations are such a gift. I appreciate your kind words. It is fun to imagine my girls someday reading what I’ve written to them — an extension of the journals I’ve been keeping for them from the time they were in utero.
What a lovely celebration of your precious little girl:) Just imagine her reading this after she’s grown!!
It is wonderful to catch a glimpse of who lala (a song – love that) is. I can only imagine how special it will be for her to read and retread about herself. Such an everlasting gift, your thoughts :)
My own dearest girl…what a blessing Lala is (and has been since first we knew her!) and again, like you always do, you’ve captured her…her quirky uniqueness…her flat-out adorability…her tender-heartedness and kindness and gentle spirit…her funnnnny sense of humor…her affectionate physicality…and even how she loves her groceries! She’s precious beyond imagining! I’m so grateful that you can tell a story the way you do, that you can help others know a bit of her too! Like others said, what a blessing this will be to her when she reads it one day! So…Happy birthday dear Lala! We love you with whole hearts and can’t wait to celebrate and sing with you!! xxoo
Just love the drawings she makes!!
Me too! :)
I know I’m tardy but I pray that sweet Lala had a blessed day. I’m sure she felt special thanks to her wonderful family. She sounds so much like my Emma. She declared herself “the teeny boss” one day and it still remains. Blessings to Lala on her 4th year of living a full life. Hugs to all!
Nanc
Teeny boss, I love it! Thanks for your sweet wishes for Lala. She had a great day. Can’t wait to spend more time together with our kidlets soon.