Twenty-six Years Ago Today . . . .

. . . . this sweet young woman joined our family, on her grandmother's birthday, at 1404 CDT (known in the civilian world as 2:04 p.m.). She was in a hurry -- Pepper had to catch her head while the doc was still scrubbing. She debuted at a fighting weight of 7 lbs., 6 oz. and, after clearing up the colic issues, she grew like a weed. All except the hair part -- that took a couple of years to fill in! But that's not a problem -- I love little bald-headed babies, then and now.

Ten months later, she was walking. And climbing out of her crib (thanks for teaching her how to do that, Shay!), toddling down the hall, and climbing up the footboard to pounce into the bed with her Daddy and me at ungodly-early hours. At two, she went running down the sidewalk, naked as a jaybird. I was really grateful for the open-door alarm that day!

She danced, she soccered, she Girl Scouted, she cheer-led, and she pretty much ran her high school, as had her sister before her. She engaged in the extended-stay undergrad experience, not hearing her Muse until Katrina hit. Today, she is preparing to begin the graduate program in the School of Social Work at UALR, and fretting over how to schedule work, school, time with her precious pup and the man in her life, helping her sister with wedding plans, and sleep. She'll handle it just fine.

My beautiful brunette baby will handle it just fine. Happy birthday, my Ronni.