Happy Birthday, Part II

Today is this girl's birthday.

Unlike Katie, who is a pink girl, this girl was born to be blue.


Here's the evidence...

Okay, so it may have been that I was dressing her in DR's cast-offs, but I still reckon she was born to wear blue. 

I mean, c'mon.... does this girl look like she was born to be pink?

See! A dress! She had a dress. Okay, it was for a wedding, and even the dress only suited her in blue. She loved her daddy, and her daddy loved her. Did I say 'loved'? I meant 'loves'.

 And another dress! This is her with Grandpa, my Dad, and it's one of my favourite photos from this stage of her life.

At this stage, DR and Catherine shared a room: DR had his own bed, and Catherine was in the cot. Almost every night when we'd go in to say our Goodnight, this is how we'd find them.

Sweet.

Sigh. If any of you have children at this stage just now, I've gotta say this to you: 'Enjoy it'.

Oh, I know it's busy, and there's loads of work, but take time to savour it, treasure it, photograph it (anyone else out there with loads of photos of the first child and only a handful of the second? Yep, me too!)

 This was in our back garden when we lived in Glasgow. We had trees! Trees and bushes. Ahhh, them was the days... the days of no gales, and of gardens and of no gales, and of flowers.

It was also the days of living in the city and not seeing the sea, and not being near family and not seeing the sea, and not having a vegetable plot and not....well, you know what.

Was that really us, living there?

This was us in Colonial Williamsburg. Aren't you glad I told you this, because I know you'd never have guessed it from the photo.

Anyway, we couldn't believe there was a sign for homeschoolers. 'You mean, they know what we are?!'

So, that was then


And this is now ...

 and this...

 and here with her cousin, Emma, with whom she's going to spend three whole days next week.

Every stage of their lives is precious, and I do s-i-g-h when I look back at the earlier years. But having daughters at the ages our girls are at is so precious too. They quickly become your friends as well as your daughters. I treasure every moment I have with them right now. I pray nothing will ever spoil the relationship we can have as mother and daughters, and for them, as sisters.


As a birthday treat this year, I am taking the two of them to the mainland next week for a few days. We leave on Monday morning and will not be back until Friday night.


(Anyone want to feed some guys while we're gone? No? Oh well, I guess it will be a case of filling the freezer and labeling each day's food.)


Us girls are going to Inverness and then on to Edinburgh. No doubt, I'll post some photos over the week, but don't expect to hear too much from me. We're planning on having a ball!


Oh, I may, though, have a wee surprise for you on Friday night.... That's all I'm saying, but - stay tuned!