My eldest,

Today you are fourteen years old. It’s funny, I can still remember the day you were born like it was yesterday. Your dad and I fighting beltway traffic to get to the hospital listening to Blues Traveler as the difference between false labor contractions and the real ones smacked me in the face. Ah, the memories…

Now, with one year of teenagehood under your belt, you are officially a pro. I say this because I’m hoping you don’t get any better eye-rolling, apathetic shoulder-shrugging skills or you could hurt yourself. I’m still your mother and I worry. (I felt as if I could add a little sarcasm to this birthday post seeing you have become a master of that as well.)

At fourteen, you love soccer, fashion, your computer, Super Nanny, animals, travel, Indian & Thai food, your iphone, Wife Swap, MySpace, San Francisco, your friends, playing with Eli & Henry, shopping, spicy food, chai tea lattes, reading, making movies with my flip camera and your family. You hate bees, mean people, math class and me nagging you about your posture. (Really, though, stand up straight. You’re beautiful!)

You have grown in many ways this past year but yet you remain the strong, compassionate, creative girl that you have always been. Even though you and your sister often bicker, I know that you love and respect her deeply. I know this because of all of the good times you share together playing sports, computer games and fooling around with the cats. Man, you love those cats. You suffered along with the rest of us when we lost Lillian in January but you were able to handle it without falling apart, unlike your parents. When we adopted Clyde and Max a couple of months later, I watched as your heart opened up so effortlessly to love again. It took the rest of us a little bit longer but we have since followed your lead and are just as smitten with that feline duo.

You made it look like no big deal when you traveled by yourself on a plane for the first time this year. You definitely caught the itch to see and experience the world which continues to make both of your parents very proud.



Because the world is yours on a silver platter right now and unlike so many of the other kids we know, you aren’t in any rush. You take life as it comes and you enjoy it. It has been such a pleasure to watch you grow and become the young lady that you are today. You do it with such a sense of yourself that sometimes it makes me catch my breath.

Like today…when you are fourteen years old.

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