Thirteen Years Ago...

For the past 13 years, this first weekend in September has been wild for us. We jam three birthdays in three days, and try really hard not to get a huge sugar buzz off it.

Today, we ushered Darcie into her teenage years, although she's had a teenager's attitude for a while now! So to commemorate, here's a peek into what we were doing 13 years ago today.....

Actually, I was kind of sweating it, because I didn't want duplicated birthdays. Even though I wasn't due yet, 2 out of 3 kids had already shown up before their due dates, so I didn't want to take any chances. Here's the direction my thoughts took back then:

Sept. 5th

"Please not today, Baby. Hold on, and don't come now, because it's Brandon's birthday."

Sept. 6th

"Ok, so please not today, either. It's my birthday, and I'd hate for this child to have to share a birthday with its mother." (We didn't learn the sex on any of our kids before they came.)

Sept. 7th (just shortly after midnight)

"Ok, we made it past the birthdays. So any time now, would be fine."

So Darcie wasted no time, and showed up in the wee hours that morning. After a super short (they call it "precipitous") labor the last time, we hurried to the hospital for her arrival. To this day, we still remember it as the one that we laughed through labor there.

It's not nice to laugh at another person's misfortunes, but we truly could not help ourselves. Because as we were there in the birthing room, we could hear -- from down the hall, another laboring woman. It went something like this:

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" (pause)

"(imaginative expletives)" (pause)

"(imploring cries for someone to hurry things along, with more imaginative expletives)"

We assumed it was her first baby. No, it was her second. She must have slept through the first one. We laughed until it hurt, which was during my contractions. There was one doctor, who was going back and forth between her room, and ours. Most of the time, we waved him off, and he would go back to spend a bit more time with her.

The other memorable thing about Darcie's arrival, is that she came "sunny side up". (Meaning, she was face up, instead of face down) In the middle of pushing, the nurse next to me started shaking my arm, saying, "Open your eyes! Open your eyes!!"

(Umm, I'm a little busy here -- working hard, you know. They call it LABOR.)

But it was the first, and only time I looked into my baby's face as she was being born. Pretty cool.

As you can see, Darcie is growing into a very beautiful young woman. That wonderful hair color is all hers; it lightens during the summer, and deepens during the winter. Today, she expressed that she wishes it were darker (redder). I'm not sure she realizes how unique that color is. She enjoys many different things, including sports (softball, volleyball, and soccer), music, art, reading, and video games. This year, she is in Jazz Band, starting a new instrument, the baritone sax. Darcie is also on the 7th grade varsity volleyball team, and enjoys that a lot. Since Emma has come along, Darcie has been an amazing help with her, and can work wonders with the baby like no one else. She likes to think that I'm blissfully unaware of her yogurt obsession, but thanks to a blog -- now everyone knows!

Happy Birthday, Darcie! We sure love you!!