My Big Girl

So nearly this whole blog is about Violet--and why wouldn't it be? She's the reason I started it and she's the newest member of our household, but this post will be about the girl who started it all. Miss GraceAnne was born almost 4 years ago on Tuesday, June 15th at 11:29am. She was born in Seattle, WA at a birthing center. I started having contractions at 1pm on Monday, June 14th and labored at home through the night. We went to the birthing center at 7am on Tuesday and the midwife told us we were dilated to 8. It wasn't until 9:30, dilated to 9.5 with a "lip" that they broke my water and I had a hard time with pushing, but 2 hours was so worth it for my darling girl. I cried because her head was shaped like an alien, but I was so amazed that this 7lb 7oz 20 3/4" girl had come from me.

She was always drama, from the start. She was very colicky and would cry for hours on end in the evenings. But she was beautiful, sweet, loved car rides and walks, (so do we!), and was a great eater, too. She started smiling early on and since then has been beaming from ear to ear most of the time. She's always been my "happy morning baby" and is the cuddliest thing when she wakes up.

She was also always very fast. Thanks to reflux and the stubborn will she inherited from her mother AND father, (that's right, Mr. Doyle, YOU TOO! ;) ), she was sitting up at 3 months, crawling at 6 months and walking at 10 months. She said her first real word at 11 months and it was "fishy." She has always been incredibly smart and picks things up very quickly. By age 2 she was having conversations with us in full sentences and potty training.

Her big sister is her whole world and they were the very best of friends while we lived in Washington state. We lived there for the first 25 months of GraceAnne's life and I'm so glad she got that bonding time with Rhiya. She still adores Rhiya and looks up to her in so many ways. She literally counts down the months, weeks and days until we get to see her again. (last night we talked about how we will get to keep "Rhy-Rhy" in a month)

She loves her family, and lights up whenever she hears we're going to have some visiting. She's super-excited that we got to see Aunt Claudia, Aunt Linda, Uncle Jim and Uncle Duckie last month, along with Gramma and Grampa Bruce last weekend. She's thrilled to have her Aunt Trishie coming next month, too.

Her favorite playmate is her Daddy and when he comes home from school she takes off like a bolt of lightning to the front door to jump on him, hug him and tell him she missed him today. On the weekends she loves to crawl onto the bed with him and tell him how excited she is that she gets to "keep him" today.

She is over-the-moon about her new baby sister and tells everyone she sees about her. When we are out, her most frequently uttered phrase is, "Isn't baby Violet so cute?" Most assuredly, she is, and so is GraceAnne!

She is a sassy pants and still, so much drama. I think she will have a knack for theatre or law when she is in school. She is her mother's child through and through, even though she looks just like dad! Even so, she is very thoughtful, kind and loving and would go to any lengths to make her mommy, daddy and sisters smile.

GraceAnne's birthday is important to me for more reasons than just celebrating our little girl, though. To me, her birth marks the day that I knew I was going to stay in this for better or worse--for my little girl. Her conception brought 2 people together who had never imagined they could or would be together forever. Obviously God had a great hand in the matter, as I was not supposed to be able to have children thanks to an illness when I was a teenager. Here we all are--older, wiser, loving each other better with every passing day and CONSTANTLY learning from each other. Husband-Wife-Daughters through it all, and nothing could be more important or precious than that!