Dear Caroline,
Today is your sixth birthday. Six years. I know it in my head but my heart is having a hard time comprehending that you are six years old.
Up until the day he died, my Pa-Pa never missed an opportunity to tell me about the day I was born. He loved to tell me how he took a sleeping pill because he couldn’t sleep and then got the call from my daddy at midnight letting them know they better head to Houston right then if they wanted to be there when I was born. So he and my Me-Ma picked up my Nanny and the three of them headed to the hospital with my Pa-Pa at the wheel in spite of his medicated state. I always loved hearing him tell me that story even though I never totally understood why he told it so often.
Now I understand.
There are moments in your life that are so significant that they don’t fade with the passing of time. I’ve mostly forgotten the pain of not getting an epidural until way too late in labor and the fact that I managed to inflict a thumb injury on your daddy while he held my hand during a contraction, but I will never forget the way I felt when they placed you in my arms for the first time. You looked at me with eyes that never seemed to blink as if you were giving me the once over to see if I was up for the challenge of motherhood.
Some days I feel like the verdict is still out. There are days I get it right and days I get it wrong, but the one constant is that you bring me more joy and laughter than I knew existed six years ago.
A few weeks ago we were coming home from an exciting morning of grocery shopping at HEB and all of a sudden I hear your little voice ask, “Why am I here?”
“What do you mean? Why are you in the car?”
“No. I mean why am I here? Why did God put me here?”
Wow. I don’t think I asked that question until my mid-twenties. Or yesterday.
I explained that God has a purpose and a plan for all of us. He loves us and wants to use us to help those around us. You listened to me very intently and then said, “I think maybe God wants me to be a clown”. If that’s your calling then I will do what I can to help you be the best clown you can be, but you need to know that your daddy had a bad circus experience as a child and may not be able to hang out with all your clown friends. Something about all those people fitting in one tiny car freaks him out.
This summer we’ve spent a lot of time at the pool and you never fail to act completely devastated when it’s time to leave. It’s especially bad if you see one of your friends walking in as we’re leaving. In fact there have been moments that I’ve wanted to fake an injury or throw a beach towel over your head to distract you from the realization that someone you haven’t seen in “at least two days” just walked in to swim.
The drama reached new heights last week as we left to go home after your pleas for “just five more minutes” fell on deaf ears. You looked at me with big tears in your eyes and announced, “I am as sad as a pickle that has just been eaten.”
It’s my new favorite phrase. I kind of think we ought to make some t-shirts and see if it catches on.
But that’s what I love about you. You’re not afraid to voice your opinion. You will never be one to sit back and see what everyone else does. You’re ready to take on life the same way you jump off the diving board, one great big flying leap.
When you were still just a baby, I would rock you and sing to you. These days you’d probably tell me that my voice doesn’t sound very good, but back then you weren’t able to complain unless it was in the form of a toxic diaper. I usually treated you to a wide array of song choices during those middle of the night hours, but one that I always ended up singing was “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” even though singing Aerosmith songs to your newborn is such a cliche’. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation that led me to resort to Steven Tyler, but it summed up how I felt as we sat and rocked with your little baby fingers curled around mine.
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
While you’re far away dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure”
Last night I tucked you in and began to read the books you’d picked out for us to read. My voice cracked and I felt tears come to my eyes. You just seemed so big to me as you sat snuggled up next to me and pointed out the words you can read by yourself. Time just seems to be going by too fast.
And I don’t want to miss a thing.
Daddy and I love you more than you’ll ever know. Happy Birthday, sweet girl.
Love,
Mama
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That is beautiful! I’m so glad God blessed you with your daughter! Happy Birthday, Caroline!
I’m barely awake and I’m already crying. Hope Caroline has a wonderful birthday and not one second of being as sad as a pickle that’s just been eaten.
Happy 6th Birthday Caroline!
I so relate to the bittersweet feeling of being so proud of who they’re becoming but on the other hand wanting time to slow down so I don’t miss anything (my little guy turns 6 at the end of August).
I can so relate. Where does the time go? Thanks for sharing your heart and your daughter.
Happy Birthday Caroline. Melanie~ My baby just celebrated her 17th birthday. She will always be my baby. That is probably why I’m in tears now after reading your Steven Tyler song here at work. I will have to let people know that I have really bad allergies today… Sounds good, right!
My sweet baby will be 15 on the 16th of this month. He is over 6 feet tall and handsome and sweet as all get out. He broke his arm last sunday skateboarding. I got to bathe him the other day for the first time since he was Caroline’s age. He was mortified, but it was my honor to make sure he was clean and dry and comfortable. Sometimes, just for a second, I miss those days.
Such a beautiful letter to an amazing little girl from her amazing mama. I don’t want to miss a thing either.
Happy Birthday Caroline! It has been so much fun seeing you grow, I feel like we are neighbors. All the things you do and say make me laugh so hard.
I hope your birthday is wonderful and you get to spend the whole day at the pool or some equally fun location!
My babies are 3, 1, and 5 weeks gestation (LOL), and I already feel like they’re growing up too quickly. Except maybe the one that’s the size of a BB pellet. You know, since I’ve only known about that one for like 10 days.
But I definitely can relate to the singing. My mom sang to us kids all the time before bed, and I sing to mine. I just love it. Being a mother is so bittersweet.
And I love the pickle comment. We really should make T-shirts.
Oh, such a sweet post! I wish away soooo much time with the 3 year old and 1 year old. I know I need to stop and really cherish these moments. Thank you for the reminder.
Maybe you all can celebrate by, I don’t know…maybe going to the pool?
Isn’t 6 years old the best. I’d forgotten until my grand daughter turned 6. It’s amazing to watch them become, dream, imagine and loose their teeth. amazingly wonderful.
Happy birthday.
“singing Aerosmith songs to your newborn is such a cliche’.” Oh, how you do crack me up.
Happy Birthday, Caroline!
Great letter. I totally agree with the sentiment. But can you tell me, how am I supposed to breath in a few minutes when I go for my run since I am now crying and have snot that wasnt there prior to reading this? Never mind. I am going sneak back upstairs and watch my children sleeping.
My twin girls (Caroline & Olivia) turned 6 last Thursday. I wasn’t sad about it UNTIL I just read this! Now I am all weepy. They do grow up way too fast.
Happy Birthday to your Caroline!
I would buy and wear such a t-shirt! What a sweet post.
Thanks. Thanks alot. Now I’m a great, big, sloppy mess and it’s only 8:22 a.m.. Especially since 2 of mine just left an hour ago for their 1st day of 1st and 3rd grade!
“Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.”
– Truvy, Steel Magnolias.
What a sweet post. Happy, happy birthday to Caroline! You are right to savor every moment – it really does go by TOO fast. My baby girl (21!) got married this June and while I’m superbly happy for her and I’m crazy about my new “son,” I’m also sadder than a pickle that’s just been eaten! (I think that expression has legs, as they say!) Anyway, keep drinking in those moments with your precious girl! You are blessed!
AAAAHHHHHH!!! My daughter turned 6 ten days ago and I wasn’t too sad about it until I read your post. I’ve been counting down the days until she goes to 1st grade… (only seven) and now I don’t know if I want to send her back to school. Sigh.
What a beautiful letter to your daughter. Enjoy every moment with her. And who does not love the pickle comment? I would totally buy a t-shirt.
Too fast, must stop time… must hold on!
Happy 6th Birthday Sweet Caroline, we love watching you grow up!
Beautiful!!! My daughter turn 5 tomorrow and I feel the same way!! I am so thankful I can be home with her each day but it still doesn’t feel like enough.
Happy Birthday Caroline!
Awww, so so sweet!!!!!!
I’m as happy as a Double Stuffed Oreo as I read this…
which is bittersweet, because you know it doesn’t have much longer.
You know, I needed this today. I am going through a particularly rough patch with my almost 15 year old daughter right now, and I just needed to sit back and relish in the sweet memories this morning.
This post took my mind off of the current situation and took me back to a really precious time….again…I needed this today.
Thanks!
Thank You.
Happy Birthday Sweet Caroline!
Mel…I know how you feel…my “oldest” will also be in first grade and I am wondering where the time went…He looks so old to me…lots of lost teeth and new teeth (BIG teeth) coming in…he will be 7 in September and I can’t believe it!
My Caroline is almost 4 and that just shocks me…time does fly by…
Thanks for sharing…love to read your blog! You always bring a smile to my face and song (Aerosmith) to my heart!
Paige
Great. Now I am crying on Monday morning. Very heartfelt post – I cannot believe our August babies are so big!
She is beautiful, and becoming a wonderful little lady, and it has been fun to watch.
p.s. You are doing a great job, Mama!
I knew that I thought Caroline was a lot like my oldest daughter for a reason!
Today, my sweet Elizabeth turns FIVE!
Happy Birthday Caroline! For the love of all things dill, cut your Momma a little slack today. She’s probably fighting tears all day long wondering how in the heck you ever survived her first year of motherhood and despite all her imperfections turned out to be a pretty cool kid. (At least that’s what I’m doing today with my little Princess.)
Okay, time to pass the Kleenex box. Thank you for putting it in words how blissfully sad it is to let our little ones grow up. Happy 6th Birthday, Miss Caroline!
What a sweet, sweet post! Happy Birthday to Caroline – and to you!
My baby turns six today also. And I couldn’t be more in love! Happy Birthday Caroline, and Happy Birthday Clint!
Happy 6th Birthday, Caroline! Hope you don’t have the “pickle sads” for a moment today.
My girls love hearing stories about when they were born and when they are babies, and my hubby and I love telling them.
What a wonderful tribute to your daughter, I know there will be quite a few teardrops in the coffee this morning.
oh mel, how sweet. i love that you write up and convey these sweet birthday letters to caroline every year. they are going to be such a treasure. when matt’s parents had both passed away and we were all going through all their things in the house, it was the LETTERS that were matt’s MOST IMPACTFUL treasures! they say so much about ya’lls love!
i can sit here and just imagine that love, but know i’ll never know it first hand, until i have a child of my own. i cannot wait for that time to come and then, like you, i know i am just going to want it to slow down once it finally gets here. love you!
Awww. Happy Birthday Caroline! Such a precious post – definitely made me cry. But, I do love the pickle quote and would definitely buy a t-shirt and help it catch on.
Hope y’all have a great day!
I’m a huge Caroline fan!
The world needs more just like her.
I’m all over the Pickel T-shirts!!!! I could be your Michigan rep.
Happy Birthday!
You would be a GREAT CLOWN!
Geez, here I’m feelin’ all miserable about a, shall we say disagreement, with hubby this morning, when I come across the “sick as a pickle” line. I just burst out laughing….thanks for cheering me up…gonna use that line a lot…it’s a keeper.
Ok, that is just too sweet. Happy Birthday Caroline!
That brought tears to my eyes.. Happy birthday miss Caroline!!
Poor P, I hope Caroline decides to take a different career path =)
Happy Birthday, Caroline!
What a sweet birthday post! I like to write birthday posts for my girls.
Last Thursday was my oldest daughter, Cammie’s, 19th birthday. I reminded her that I sang You Are My Sunshine to her before she was ever born.
But I’ve also chosen an unlikely song or two throughout the years to sing to her. Like Shania Twain’s Forever and For Always.
I’m feeling a lump grow in my throat right now. I agree–time goes by all too fast. Then they’re 19, about to get married and make you a grandmother by Thanksgiving. ME, of course. That won’t be happening to you right now.
Watching three daughters with three different personalities grow at the speed of light can be so brutal on a mama’s heart.
Your words to Caroline about God’s plans for all of us have brought me warmth and peace today. I’m so grateful that you share these moments with us.
Next time my girls make me upset, I shall use Caroline’s now famous words, “I am as sad as a pickle that has just been eaten.”
I totally think a t-shirt would fly! I’ll take one. Or four. Lots of moody females in my house.
Today is my daughter’s fifth birthday, and I am crying reading your words because I feel the same way…even about the clowns (which she wanted to bee too until the other day when she said maybe her feet were too small). Thanks for sharing~
uh…i meant “be” not bee….good grief!
what a sweet post! happy birthday Caroline! time does pass way too quickly my oldest has a 7 month old, next one heads to college on sunday, and youngest is in 8th and i still look at them as my babies and think there is no way they can be this old. enjoy these days as i know you do but what is to come is glorious too!
you have such a way with words and telling stories. i was crying just a few paragraphs in and then laughing a few moments later. such a sweet post. thanks for sharing!
Sweet, sweet
Happy Birthday Caroline!
I really don’t know where time goes exactly. My sister and I spent many minutes trying to figure that out when we were younger but now it just goes faster and we are none the wiser of its where abouts
Happy Birthday Caroline from some people you don’t even know in Nova Scotia! 
Aw, Melanie, you have made tears well up in my eyes so early this morning!
I love how you said that there are significant days in our lives that we never forget. The birth of a child is definitely a defining moment in your life! I love to recount it for my children and plan on being around to recount it to Harper many times!!
Have a great week!
Blessings!
What a sweet post — it made me cry! My daughter, Sanders, turned four yesterday, and all I could think about all day was how fast time is going by. It seems like just yesterday that she was born.
Happy Birthday to Miss Caroline! She reminds me so much of my six-year-old daughter, Tyler…
i went from tiny pricks of tears in my eyes, to crying, to giggling, to laughing out loud, back to crying.
motherhood….oh the emotions!
happy birthday caroline!
(i wanted to write happy birthday sweet caroline….something she has never heard or will ever hear in her lifetime!)
I didn’t realize I could cry so much this early in the morning.
Happy Birthday to Caroline.
And I’ll take 4 pickle shirts for my family, please.
If you figure out a way to keep them little, let me know! My baby turned 5 in May and 9 days will be starting kindergarten. I know that he will love it! Hoping he will have a teacher with the patience of a saint. But it makes me all sad and mushy.
Happy Birthday Caroline!
nothing like starting off a monday with a good cry
Beautiful letter … thanks for sharing with us, too.
Oh Big Mama! Why do you make me cry on a Monday morning? Are you telling me that the next 5 years of my 1 year old daughter’s life are going to go by just as fast as this last one?!
Thanks for sharing such a beautiful letter with us. Happy birthday Caroline!
Bravo. Happy Birthday to the little miss, and the clown thing and the pickle thing made me laugh aloud. (Especially the pickle thing- matter of fact that may be a new saying around here.)
Mother-love is a beautiful thing!
Happy birthday, Caroline!
So sweet!! Hope the day is wonderful!
That was beautiful, although in my pregnant hormonal state I could have used a ‘less funny, more serious thread’ warning.
You’re a fantastic momma with a fantastic girl!
Happy Birthday Caroline!!
Melanie, you slay me with your words and humor. Caroline is such a blessed girl to have a wonderful, funny mommy like you! We’ll take 4 pickle shirts any day!
Happy Birthday Caroline!
Passing a tissue across the miles to your Mama. So sweet to witness you savoring these moments, they fly by faster with each passing day. Just dropped our baby grand (6) off for her first day of First grade we are more aware of this now than ever before.
hugs,
tammy
I don’t know how it happened, but you have quickly become my favorite blogger! I always save my favorite blogs to read last and you and Sundry are always the last! Your stories seem so real (duh, they actually are!) and I just love how you make motherhood seem so natural. Currently, I am sooo on the fence about having a baby and reading your blog makes me feel like although it would be life-changing, I could still be myself and have FUN along the way.
Anyway – Happy birthday sweet, sassy Caroline!
I cried a few happy tears as I read this post. My own daughter will be turning one in a short 44 days. This year has gone by faster than I anticipated. I still get to rock her as I feed her and I treasure each moment because I know the day will come when she thinks she’s too big for her mama’s arms. Thank you for sharing. It’s good to know that although the baby moments are short, they will always be our baby. And every moment is as precious and beautiful as the last.
Happy Birthday, Caroline!!
I don’t have any little blessings of my own and I appreciate you sharing this moment…Now where are those ding dang tissues!?
Happy Birthday Caroline!!! Your message got me thinking of my brother and sister and how we got them through foster care. And me being able to share their little joys in life. They just turned 12 and 13 this year and I feel like an old mother
Babies grow up too fast!!! I don’t consider them my adopted siblings, I love them like flesh and blood and would go to the ends of the world for them. Y’all have a great birthday day!!!
~Molly P
Wow SOOO beautifully written. I got chills when I read the part about her asking you why she is here. And then I laughed so hard when you recalled your favorite phrase about the pickle. I will do my best to get that phrase going here in Colorado! Happy Birthday Caroline!!
I cried when I read this! I don’t have any children yet, but I look forward to the day when I get to “look back” at those special times, as you did today.
Happy Birthday Caroline!
Happy Birthday sweet Caroline!
Happy birthday to a sweet and funny six year old that keeps us all laughing.
I, too, may need to begin describing my sadness as only a pickle who had been eaten could describe it.
Genius.
I didn’t realize our babies were only 2 weeks apart. Since my July 24th baby is the youngest in the family and the only boy … and truth be told, the fact that I couldn’t stand letting him go I “gave him another year” and he’ll go to kindergarten this fall – Which is a bit of a bummer b/c Jacob and Caroline might have ended up at Texas A & M in fish camp together or something. Unless of course she’s at clown school. Then again, Jacob might be there too! You just never know.
Sweet post about a sweet girl! Oh, and I want a pickle t-shirt! That is funny!
Happy birthday, Caroline! May God fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith (2 Thess. 1) – even being a clown! By the way, my sis used to dress up in her clown costume sometimes for my mom’s aerobics class to “delight the ladies.” Caroline is in good company.
Happy birthday to your sweet girl. Your post was so moving. I am sitting here with tears in my eyes.
That was just lovely.
Many, many happy returns of the day, Caroline. May the Lord continue to grant you and your parents the desires of your hearts.
I have two girls 18 and 7, so I know exactly what you are feeling. Happy birthday Caroline!
I’m in tears. My little man’s 3rd b’day is in 2 weeks, and your letter described exactly how I feel about our relationship.
*Now I’m off to go re-apply my eye liner. Thanks!
Beautiful. Since we just celebrated Gracie’s 3rd birthday yesterday, your post is especially sweet to me.
Have a wonderful day and don’t miss a thing.
The goodness of God is evident — she is beautiful!
Thanks for making me cry!
My grandma would tell me “my story” every year, and I’d roll my eye’s and think she was crazy, and now that she’s gone thinking how I’ll never hear it again breaks my heart
Crying…again! Thank you for sharing your love for Caroline with all of us. Thursday is our big day for Abbie to turn 6 years old! Where does the time go?
Oh, yes…over the weekend our daughter (21) was finally home from her trip abroad, our son (24) came home for the evening and my dad was here visiting. And of course, my husband. All my favorite people together in the same place. The kids — grown up just a little too fast; my dad — grown older a little too fast. I thought I might burst from happiness. Or sadness. Or plain old love.
Oh, yes…over the weekend our daughter (21) was finally home from her trip abroad, our son (24) came home for the evening and my dad was here visiting. And of course, my husband. All my favorite people together in the same place. The kids — grown up just a little too fast; my dad — grown older way too fast. I thought I might burst from happiness. Or sadness. Or plain old love.
My little girl is turning 6 in September. Like yours, she is an only child. I broke into tears just reading your post. Where has the time gone?
Sniff. I will never be able to get through that song with out tears now!Happy Birthday Caroline and happy mama anniversary Big Mama!
Who knew that Aerosmith sung great lullibies?
Love this post. SO real and full of the emotions of motherhood. Caroline has already had a bigger impact than she realizes. She cracks me up and she is so full of life! Happy Birthday Caroline!
She was three years old when I met you. Good grief, that three years flew by!
Happy Birthday, Sweet Caroline.
Oh my stars. You’re killing me.
Happy Birthday, Caroline! You’re gonna LOVE six.
Happy Birthday! I would SO buy that pickle t-shirt!
Loved it! I’d buy the shirt too, just saying. Happy Birthday, Caroline!!
whew! tears! happy birthday, caroline. as a first-time-mom-to-be, this was more than i could take on this fine afternoon. what a sweet post.
Beautiful post. One day she will read this with tears running down her cheeks.
Happy 6th Birthday to Caroline! She is going to treasure these words from you one day. I hope you get to do something fun to celebrate!
Happy Birthday sweet Caroline!! You have a beautiful daughter and I can imagine the joy she brings to your life!! And I guarantee you that should she, in say 10 years or so, and she comes across a particular Stephen King movie, that her dreams would be shattered of becoming a clown. I am quite fearful of them. But I will say, she would be the prettiest clown out there, with her pickle T-shirt on!
Both & you and Caroline are precious gifts to one another!
You better print this off and save it so you have it forever. These memories and days are so important and they fly by so quickly. I can’t believe my baby… my first baby… will be 7 in October. It’s so hard to watch them grow wings!
Well, it serves me right for checking blogs while at work. I swore I would just get on here for “one second” and then get right back to business. And now I’m mopping up my mascara. That was beautiful.
Happy Birthday sweet Caroline from your Bryan family!!!! We love you and your mom and dad so much. I’ll always remember the first time I saw you and the joy of that special day. You inspire us and we love you for it. God Bless you and your precious family! I thank God for the blessing of you!
P.S. I’ll buy one of the pickle t-shirts for sure!!!!
A+ for this post. And Happy Birthday to Caroline, you sad pickle.
To the little girl: The Happiest of Birthdays!
To the Mommy:
Just cling to the fact that this year’s birthday is so much easier to deal with than next years will be.
My baby turned 16 this summer and it literally broke my heart. I completely understand how you feel. Continue enjoying every moment. It goes so fast.
Happy Birthday to the funniest and cutest girl!
If you figure out how to stop time, please let me in on the secret!
Happy Birthday to your sweet, sweet girl! She looks JUST like you.
You have me crying in the airport. My baby girl turns 20 tomorrow, and I just left her presence after spending my last day of being a mother of a teenager. It’s been a mixed bag of good, bad and ugly, but heavy on the good. And you’re so right…even looking back, I would never have wanted to miss a thing.
So good to see you this weekend,
Melinda
I’m de-lurking to wish your baby girl a happy birthday. This was such a sweet post.
This is wonderful(and humorous too!)
I experienced this same heartache in April. I, too, blogged about it.
http://helpingmeup.blogspot.com/2009/04/six-years-and-one-day-ago.html
Words are great and all, but there are some things that just can’t be expressed…only felt.
That being said, you did a great job expressing it!
i’d like to buy that shirt in a size medium please. cannot stop laughing.
and then crying, over the sweetness of your love for miss caroline.
Well, this was just precious. Oh, how I love six. (Have you seen this poem? http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-end-2/ Go read it right now, but take your hankie.)
If it makes you feel any better, when my oldest was a baby, I once walked in on my husband rocking him to sleep while singing Another One Bites The Dust. (Makes Aerosmith look a little better, doesn’t it?)
Happy birthday, Caroline!
Awwww, that was so touching. I’ve got tears in my eyes. Happy birthday sweet girl!
Happy Birthday Sweet Caroline!
This year when Sawyer turned 3 it hit me really hard. Time is going by way too fast.
What a lovely letter!
My baby turns 4 tomorrow and I could write the exact same post! Well, almost exact.
I hope your daughter has a great birthday!
Hey we are birthday buddies!! Hope you have a great day.
Melanie, this was priceless. And so is that adorable, spunky, hilarious little 6 year old. Happy Birthday, sweet Caroline!
I’ve never commented before, but love your blog. This post brought tears to my eyes (and I’m usually finding humor in your posts, very witty). I have a 7 year old and I couldn’t have said it better myself. Happy Birthday Caroline.
Dang it… Now I’m crying.
I came across your blog like a year ago from a friend’s blog. I love reading it!
But this made me cry! I have a little girl who be the 8 in October, a boy who will be 5 in September, and a Baby Girl who is almost two months old! Time sure does go quickly, I wish it wouldn’t. I cry at every birthday! We are always amazd by our children and so blessed to have them all!
Happy Birthday to your Sweet Caroline! She is too cute and funny! Oh and Love the Pickle pharse!
My sweet baby girl is 35 with 3 babies of her own. I love her more every day and I remember the baby that she was. It has all gone by so fast.
God has blessed us greatly with these daughters, Melanie.
The wonderful, precious surprise in all of this is that I love my grandchildren, just as I love their mommy…and I get to enjoy them completely and joyfully and spoil them terribly. One generation shall tell another of His might acts.
And I love to tell my grandsons about “the night we met” – my own version of the nights they were born.
Happy 6th Birthday, Caroline!! I hope you had a great day and mommy wrote the greatest post about you. I enjoy watching you grow up and all the cute outfits you put together. My granddaughter, Avery, is crazy about you. Every Friday night when I get home from work we read your posts together. She loves your blog and so do I. Trish
Happy Birthday Caroline!! I hope you realize what a wonderful mom you truly have!
I’m a retired teacher and I love that Caroline is a drama queen. You are right—she won’t stand back and let others tell her what to think and do. I have a 5 year old granddaughter and she too is strong of spirit. That’s a good thing.
Happy Birthday to your sweet babe!
I like the pickle analogy – especially since my girls love to eat them whole! And Winnie the Pooh, I’m off to find the book about six! So true that it’s bitter sweet to watch them grow and try not to miss a thing.
That was beautiful. Happy birthday, Caroline!
And I thought that I would get through a day without crying. My son is not quite 4 weeks old (and the reason that I haven’t blogged in the last 4 weeks), and I’m already missing the tinyness of his first days with us. My husband sings “Would You Like to Swing on a Star” to him, and I sing “Baby Mine” (from Dumbo). But we may have to add Aerosmith to our repertoire – once Baby Michael learns to smile!
Happy Birthday, belated, sweet Caroline. Have had you on my mind and in my prayers this day (it’s still her b-day in CO).
Just as I was totally in the sniff sniff, I am crying with you mode I read the pickle comment and almost spit out my coffee…but I still have the tiny tears in the corners of my eyes with you…
Awesome post.
Happy birthday, to all three of you!
happy birthday, sweet doodle-girl! and happy birth day mama. the time, it’s not slow to pass.
And now I’m crying. Thanks.
Seriously, thank you so much for inspiring me to write letters to my children. Caroline will cherish this little piece forevermore.
thanks for the tears, Mel. this is a sweet and special letter. Not sure how you got through it.
I read this yesterday but could not comment for some reason….
….you gave me such a Steel Magnolias moment reading this post. It was beautiful. I have a 3 year old son and I just look at him some times as he is playing a wonder where the time as gone. These precious gifts we have been blessed with.
great post! though i have to admit i was a little disappointed…from the title I thought you had adopted triplets yesterday.
Oh my mercy. Mine are nine and four and 1/2 now and I sit here with tears streaming down my face after reading your post. That’s one of the things about motherhood that I love most: we just get each other, don’t we?
Happy Birthday, Caroline. May your sixth year be as big as you are (and I would totally buy a t-shirt with the eaten pickle comparison!)
Made me cry. Mine are 26 and 22. All you needed was some wide-eyed baby photo and I’d be needing medication.
I have an 8, 5 & 4 year old (all boys) but the 5 year old is turning 6 next month, just about a week after he starts Kindergarten. I have been feeling exactly this same way about him. We’ve celebrated the other two birthdays already this summer, but something about my little, sweet 5 year old starting school makes me want to beg God to just stop time right here. I once read a quote that said becoming a mother means forever letting your heart walk around outside your body. I never understood until I gave my heart away and felt the sweet pain of letting go of it daily.
Tears, tears. Nothin’ but tears. And a little Aerosmith. Can’t get much better.
That was such a touching post.
I asked some deep questions as a child too. You gave an awesome answer. Caroline is lucky to have you for a mom.
That was such a touching post. I know Caroline will treasure it even if she doesn’t understand everything it said yet.
I asked some deep questions as a child too. You gave an awesome answer. Caroline is lucky to have you for a mom.
Oh My goodness! I haven’t had much time lately to read but I was BLOWN away at this post when I got to the Aerosmith song part!! I totally sang that to all my babies! It sums up the way I feel too and even now, while rocking #4 to sleep, I feel it! I know there WILL be things I will miss, moments I’ll be too busy to see or maybe even things I will see but that will drift from my memory. This can make me sad sometimes but for now, I’m on the ride of my life and I’m loving every (too fleeting) minute of it!
PS. I love it when kids say things like the “pickle” comment! Makes my day! Please keep blogging, I love reading!!
I have always loved your birthday posts.
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