Today is the fourth time that Abby is celebrating her first birthday. The first was early in September with Abby's Arizona family. The second was a small gathering for breakfast with Grandma GG (Great Grandma Grace). The third party was a nice celebration put on by Joanna's staff at work, topped with a game of pin the tail on the donkey and of course lots of food.Today's celebration is a co-party to celebrate not only Abby's first birthday with the California family, but also to celebrate Grandma's birthday as well.
But that's only the beginning of this post. Really, I'm writing this post because my little girl is one year old and is growing up, even if it seems slow right now. I can still remember holding her after she was born. She was so small and her little eyes were closed. I think of that moment sometimes at night when I take Abby to her crib and she's cuddled in my arms with her eyes closed.
Someday soon Abby is going to not need me to carry her to bed and that's going to be a good and bad day. Good, because then I don't have to carry her and bad for the same reason.
I love my daughter and I've loved her ever since I knew I would become a father. And I'm going to love any other children that we have (no, this does not mean that we are pregnant), but for now, I have Abby. And one day she's going to grow up and start her own life. Sure, it seems so far in the future right now because she's only one, but as I've been told by many parents since I became one, "treasure these moments because they go by so quickly."
So what prompted this sudden fear of Abby growing up? Was it life's mortality, having seen Steve Jobs die the other day? Was it someone reminding me of future events in my daughter's life? Yes. No. Maybe. All of the above.
I was listening to music on my iPhone (thanks Steve) the other day and a song came on. It's a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that he wrote about his daughter, Emily. Here's the song, titled, Cinderella.
Beautiful, I know. And poignant. So, I was listening to this song and "dancing" with Abby and I remembered a blog post that I had written over the summer. One in which I think about Abby's wedding day years from now. And dancing with Abby made me realize that one day I'm going to be at her wedding and dancing with her before she starts her new life.
Suffice it to say, I choked up a little bit. It doesn't help that Abby has a Cinderella outfit that she has worn a couple of times already and looks like the princess she knows she is.
Happy Birthday (again) Princess. Daddy loves you.
Until tomorrow.
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