It was 17 Years Ago Today…

That’s right, it’s my daughter’s birthday today…

17 years ago, Julie huffed and puffed and gave birth to our wonderful baby girl, Maya.  Sometimes time goes by so fast, while other times it’s kind of slow. I remember that first month we had Maya, time seemed to crawl — and I think a lot of that had to do with how little sleep we were getting at the time.  Overall, she was a very good baby, who woke up every couple of hours to eat.  But once she ate, burped, and got her diaper changed, she went right back to sleep.  It took time to get used to that routine, and by the time we did, she started sleeping longer stretches.

Colic = hell.  Simple as that.  Five months of crying every night right at 7:30pm.  It would last until 9:00pm or so, and then she would eat and fall asleep.  We got sort of used to it, but in reality we couldn’t wait for this phase to be over.  It stopped around the time we moved to California from Philadelphia, so that was a plus!

Flash forward to today…

Maya has gone from that infant, to toddler, to small child, to tween, to teen in what seems like a blur.  She’s driving, is thinking about getting a summer job, and worried about college, a major, and generally what she wants to do with her life.  Plus, there’s high school.  She’s got a lot on her plate with AP and honors courses, so her weekends are often filled with the dreaded homework.  I’m sure there’s drama at her school with friends, crushes, and all the other crap that high school is famous for.  But you know what? She doesn’t bring much of that drama home — which means either she doesn’t get too caught up in it, or that she can compartmentalize things pretty well.  Whatever the case, it’s her life, and she’s the one who has to negotiable all the twists and turns. Sure, we offer advice and support, but for the most part she’s learning to take on more and more responsibility for herself — which is what you want for your teen as they get older, huh.

A few things I do know, though:  Maya is one of the kindest, loving and funniest kids I know. Sure I’m biased because she’s my daughter, but when I look at the relationship many teens have with their parents, I feel like Julie and I are very lucky to have a child who loves her parents and wants to be around them.  That’s kind of an anomaly.

Julie and I will miss her terribly when she leaves the nest for college, but we don’t like to think about that day.  She’s got a whole new adventure waiting when that happens.  But for now, she’s just as surprised as we are that she’s 17.

Happy birthday, Maya.  Your mama and I love you so very, very, very, very, very much!