From the Eye of the Beholder

My baby is now a teenager.  Of course she was born 19 so she still has some catching up to do.

It didn't start well.  She was so ugly when she was born I was speechless.  She looked like a hairless mole rat.  I had imagined a Gerber baby.  No such luck.  The prettiest thing in her hospital photo is the pink bow they taped to her head to identify her as a female human.  Now before you start thinking how awful I am, we all laugh at this - she was a tough delivery and her face was very swollen right after she was born.  Soon, she got very cute.  But she looked like a boy.  She looked like a boy for about 4 years.  In fact, even though I dressed her in pink, people would ask me what "his" name was.  Really.



Now I look at this gorgeous teenager and wonder where she came from.  And I also know from experience that the next few years are going to fly by in a flash. She'll be gone before I know it.

But last night, after seeing a scary movie, she climbed into bed with us and put her hand on my back just so that she could feel I was there in the dark, like she did when she was little.  And even though the extra body drove me to the very edge of the bed where I couldn't move for fear of falling off, I endured it - because she was a little gooby girl again - for a little while.

(She asked for a lemon meringue pie instead of cake - like her Grandma Carol.  How would she have known that?)