Ode to Child #3

I imagine you're dying to know how my confession panned out. No? Well, too bad, here goes. It went well and was relatively painless. My daughter was nervous that she would forget what to say, but it all went fine. I'll spare you the details till tomorrow because I have more important fish to fry...

Today is her 8th birthday.

My third child.

My first child, a son, was an angel until about 6. It was all down hill from there for him .He doesn't like school, doesn't like his teachers, and usually hates me. He's a typical 13 year old and a joy to behold!

My second, a girl, was colicky for most of her first year of life. Yes, a full 10 months of sleepless nights, pacing the floors, homemade concoctions of herbal teas in the bottles, and weekly pediatrician appointments where I was crying as hard as she was. The doctors searched for neurological reasoning, but could find none. Then at 10 months- she started speaking- freakishly- not one word- but full sentences. As soon as she could communicate by other forms than screaming- she did. We thought finally, here is our sweet little girl! Until she turned 4. Then the dramatics started. And the whining. And the debating. They haven't stopped. She is our drama queen and very talented, but tiring!

My third, a humongous surprise pregnancy... apparently there was some celebrating after the 10 month colic disappeared, because 9 months later...what we swore we would never go through again... there she was!

We were scared to death of another colicky baby. We held our breath for her first month of life! She didn't test us. She was perfect. She was my first child to take to nursing. She slept through the night by 3 weeks. She never cried. Smiled, laughed and giggled early and often (and still does.) Her first words were "what's that smell?" That always cracked us up.

She's in second grade and reads at a seventh grade level. She scored in the 96% in her standardized testing this year. She loves to learn and soaks up knowledge from everything around her.

She has a great sense of humor, can make anyone laugh and gets my jokes. She's secure and happy with who she is and a delight to be with. She's the peacemaker and gets along with everyone.

She has a raspy voice like she's been downing whiskey sours, sucking on Marlboro unfiltered, and yelling over the band for years.

As much as I love all of my kids- practice makes perfect and third time was a charm!
Happy Birthday Alayna Brooke! Thanks for renewing my faith in my parenting ability!