Happy Birthday, Brynn

Eating spaghetti for breakfast in bed-her choice for something like 8 years in a row

Yes, I know we are a little behind in posting this, but I didn't want this year to go by without sharing about Brynn's birthday.

She is so pretty

Blowing out the candles

Everybody at Pasta Factory

She had a great day and somehow even managed to get a birthday party (we normally don't do parties on odd years.)  At some point I had told Brynn that she could invite a couple of friends to go swimming this year.  Well, the Sunday before her birthday, I had the stomach flu, and she asked me if she could run a few invitations around.  I felt horrible and didn't ask for details, just said sure.  So, once I felt better and figured out what was going on, imagine my surprise!  Apparently our definition of a few is a little different.


She invited several friends to go swimming and then to Pasta Factory.  The girls had a lot of fun, and the drive home was about the nosiest car I have ever been in!  They turned the music waaay up and all the girls sang/screamed at the top of their lungs.  As long as they had fun, right?


Brynn got an American Girl doll for her birthday.  Her dad tried to veto that one, but I overrode this decision.  He was concerned that she would never really use it, but I figured that she will be 12 next year and asking for makeup and clothes.  If she wanted a doll this last year, it was my pleasure to buy her one.  She got the doll and several doll accessories and a basket for her bike that her dad found for her.  It was a great birthday.

It's funny how your children's birthdays always take you back to the actual day of their birth.  I had to be induced about 10 days early with Brynn because of pregnancy induced hypertension.  I remember crying as we dropped Davis off at my parents' and headed to the hospital the night before.  I was so excited for this baby but worried about the effect on Davis.  I shouldn't have been.  They were fast friends and still to this day remain the best of friends.

They placed the Cervidil and told me to sleep planning on inducing my labor at 7 or 8 the next morning.  But, my body had other plans.  I woke up at 5 a.m. screaming bloody murder as my water broke with a particularly difficult contraction.  The next 2.5 hours were a blur, highlights included going from not even a 1 to a 10 in 45 minutes, and Darren continually looking at the monitor and saying, "Those contractions are lasting forever and look at how strong they are."  No kidding.  I remember at one point between contractions telling Darren that I would rather have him run over my legs with the car than suffer through another contraction, but surely I must have been being dramatic.  I can't remember, but they couldn't have been that bad, even if I was dilating about 0.5-1 cm per contraction.

We waited for about an hour for the doctor to arrive, and after two pushes, she was there.  This beautiful, perfect, tiny little girl with a full head of black hair.  She only cried for a few seconds before she looked around and took everything in with those enormous, dark eyes.  

And, at that moment, after a difficult and painful labor, there was such a peace that came right on into that room with Brynn.  There is such a sweetness and a gentleness and a goodness to her.  Her whole life she has been the child you barely had to discipline because for her it is punishment enough to disappoint us, and she changes her behavior right away.  It is a pleasure to be her mother.

So happy birthday to my world champion babysitter, everybody's friend, super smart cookie, creative crafter, amazingly fierce soccer player and ultra-competitive triathlete.  You are an absolute joy.

Her whole life her dad has said that Brynn is as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside, and I couldn't agree more.