Happy Birthday

I took another little break from cleaning/purging today to celebrate an important event. Today is Daughter #2's birthday. It is hard to believe my baby girl isn't a baby girl anymore. She is two years shy of the quarter century mark. I didn't mention that to her, as she was feeling old now that she has moved a bit farther away from the magical age of 21. I am feeling a bit old myself. How can I have a child this old (not to mention Daughter #1 who is 5 years older) and still feel like I am 21 or maybe 35, but definitely not past the half century mark?

Where have the years gone? Over dinner at her favorite Mexican food restaurant we relived the night she was born. How could 23 years have passed by so quickly? It seems just a few years ago when we were skipping school together (Pre-School, that is) to stay home and watch Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. And wasn't it just last year when we were going to Girl Scout camp and Destination Imagination competitions and ballet recitals? Then junior high band and twirling and her first car on her sixteenth birthday and the first job and then prom and off to college. How did it all happen so fast?

And what of the next 23 years? How quickly will they zoom past? And oh, my God, how old will I be then? I must remember to savor each day, to take it all in and live it to the fullest! How to slow down the clock is the question. No more wishing away the hours or the days or the weeks (even if I'm having a particularly bad day). I vow to live fully - thank you daughter, for the gift of helping me to remember what I don't want to forget.