8

Eight years ago I gave birth to (possibly) my last child.

(I don't want to say that she is definitely our last child because I know how that works. The minute I say she's our last and we are never having any more BAM! The Man upstairs starts to chuckle and decides to send a "surprise")

She was born at 11:35 p.m. weighing 9 pounds even.

When she entered this world and they laid her on my chest she was so quiet but she was very alert and just lay there gazing around. So quiet and calm but those darn nurses wanted to hear her cry so they started rubbing her down. I was not happy about that.

I remember the nurses commenting on how beautifully pink she was.

I believe that one of them even commented that they had never seen a baby as pink as her.

She and I are very similar which means that there are times when

we have a difficult time getting along.

Why is that? You would think that would make us get along better, wouldn't you?

She takes a while to warm up to new people and when people first meet her she is very quiet and serious. This was and still is hard for me to understand because I'm a little more outgoing than that.

She did take after me in the hair cutting department.

My pre-school graduation picture looks eerily similar to this one...

She also takes after me and my love of all things chocolate.

She once gave herself a haircut that was so bad this was the only way to fix it.

And it cured her of ever cutting her hair again.

Here she is at three trying to decide how to blow

out all of those candles on her Elmo cake.

Again, she takes after me in the fact that she can fall asleep

almost anywhere.

Isn't that a good thing?

A year later at 4. She got the fast growing hair from her dad...not from me.

Just one of my all time favorite pictures of her.

This was her just one year ago at 7...

And here she is.

My 8 year old.

She got to open a few presents the morning of her birthday.

Her new clothes and a book.

She didn't get to open the rest of he presents until the next day.

Why? You ask.

Because her older sister had to go in for an unexpected appendectomy.

I had to call her from the hospital and explain that she would have to wait for her birthday dinner and to open the rest of her presents.

(McKenna felt awful that this all happened on Jilli's birthday)

And do you know what her response was?

"Okay mom."

She wasn't even upset at all

She just said

"Okay mom, as long as I get my presents and my birthday dinner sometime then it's okay.

Tell McKenna I hope she feels better."

I love her.