Happy 12th Birthday Delaney!

Love Your Mommy

Day 307

March 5, 2014

Team Zybko

While finishing up a cool Pinterest type project for Delaney I force myself to slow down, to shimmy a big ole hiney cheek against her bed and think for a minute. I did want all the blank index card spots creatively and thoughtfully filled in before her birthday, no worries, it was only a few minutes past noon. I still had time, a bit of productive daylight left til afternoon car line. So there I sat, thinking, thinking, thinking and thinking some more. Sifting through a gazillion memories from the past, super content in the place I seemed to stumble upon. A place where peacefulness and a heavy heart meet, greeting each other like Oreo's and ice cold glass of milk.  
  

Sitting on the edge of her hand me down pink comforter, I continue to take a few moments to soak it all in. Delaney will be turning 12 with in the next 24 hours. Ugh. Darn. Bummer. Another kid cruising and navigating through the process of growing up, way to fast. How come I can't figure out a way to impede or stop puberty, to speed bump the road just a tad for the sake of a mommas heart.
If I did I'd make a million bucks.

My eyes roam slowly around my six graders bedroom, pausing introspectively on each of the four crowded walls. Lingering as I quietly look at the walls decorated with fun childhood stuff, the kinda stuff that makes 12 year old girls happy. Wrappers of a favorite candy bar, goofy notes from friends, scribbled inside jokes, unframed pictures printed at CVS and various homemade colorful canvas art declaring her love for soccer, friends, family and God.

A piece of Delaney's history catches my attention. Immediately perking up as I didn't even know the 5 inch by 5 inch bathroom tile still lived in the outside world and not haphazardly shoved away in a box somewhere. My brain must be slowly slipping, as I picked it up off her desk I noticed it had been broken and repaired. I can't recall when or how that happened either. Of course those details aren't as important as the day it was made. Now that day I can remember so vividly it could have been yesterday.

I remember happily painting her brand new name with a sleepy hand as I nursed my newborn baby girl. Baby Daddy was on night shift so we were squeezing in an outing to a local pottery studio as a family treat. The kids played in the side yard after their artwork was done, it was a beautiful spring-ish day to play in the sunshine. I  recall being bummed as I had forgotten my camera, no iPhones back then to use as back up to a juicy Nikon. I was wearing..... Yep, true story but no, I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday.
  

Delaney didn't even fuss as we pushed her pink painted foot against the small piece of cold porcelain. Tiny baby feet are the bestest and cutest part of any newborn, hands down. Coming in a close second are their wrinkly necks that smell better than fresh flowers, crispy bacon and clean laundry all put together.

I didn't know much about my new baby on that day.

I had no idea how much joy she would bring the family in the years to come. How her spunky fun personality would continually fill my heart with the biggest of smiles.

I didn't know her love for others would cause my mother pride to swell way past capacity, to an almost painful kinda proud. I had no idea the dark black patch of hair on her then tiny head would turn a beautiful blond, a color so pretty women around the world spend many dollars and hours trying to replicate. 

I didn't know she was gifted with a singing voice resembling that of Aretha Franklin with a pack a day habit. How could I have known she would one day be the self nominated mayor of the gym nursery and constant entertainment of any room she entered.

I didn't know her scrawny chicken legs would develop serious soccer muscles and the skills to juke her old momma by the time she was 8. Or that she painfully didn't come with an indoor voice but was given more than generously the ability to boss lead her younger siblings.     

I didn't know my baby would share my hobby of photography, the thrill of brand new shoes, movie theatre movies, drama on and off the stage and dancing as if no one was looking. Or maybe as if they were, that can get tricky. CB Perkins she will ready for a microphone and class to teach in Studio 1 in a few short years :) 

I didn't know at the time her eyes would eventually turn a deep brown like her older siblings and Daddy, leaving me the odd man out once again. 

I suppose looking back I didn't know a thing as I held you close to me. I have to admit, looking forward I still can't predict the future. What I do know Delaney Grace is that I love the young woman you have become and continue to grow into. All the parts fitting right into place as God has intended them to. I pray you grow in all areas of your character, faith, work ethic, athletics, integrity, studies and kindness and love for others. Despite my efforts to stop time and the inability to even know how to start that research, I know growing up has to be done. I know you will eventually grow right out of the house, gracefully grape-vining and singing your way into adulthood. Whoa, there, ho there. I have certainly gotten a head of myself, lets not look far into the future. For right now I want to live this time in the now, as Delaney's mom. Enough talking. Let's go bake a cake, I will even  let you lick the bowl, this time!