Mental Meanderings

Happy Birthday 7 Year Old!

It's my daughters birthday today. Well, actually it'll be tomorrow for WDC but it's already morning here in Western Australia so it's actually today already. This day way back in the year 2000 I was 17 and at about this time I'd have been at rest in a dark and rather dismal twin room with a newborn baby at my side.

I was supposed to be resting after spending the past 24 hours in labor and being up all through the night at the hospital. She had been born as the sun was rising and her father (who was not yet my husband) and my mother had both stayed with me through the labor and headed home shortly after I was relocated to my maternity ward room.

Seven years later I have a seven year old daughter. It's strange to think back and remember that day. I remember feeling very young. There was a big sense of "OMG what have I done." A lot of people frown on young mothers. I know because I was one. But they don't realize what goes on in your head that first day. Seeing your child there, helpless. You don't know her cries yet and you don't feel like you could possibly be any ones mother. It's a serious reality check and all of a sudden you're the life of this newborn, you're soley responsible for her and the way she turns out. For the rest of your life you're important, the most important person in the world for many years, to this little being you created.

I feel like I've aged a lot in the past seven years. I know I'm still young and all my older readers will be thinking, "This girl knows nothing of getting older." But really there are some events in life that age you. It's not the day by day gradual process people think it is. You don't go from 17 to 24 and just notice the years pass. It's a faster process when you're younger I think. You might go 30 to 40 without too many significant leaps but 17 to 24 can be a pretty huge gap.

I think I can look back and be proud of these past seven years. I got to grips with being a parent and I've discovered I'm pretty good at it. It helps to have two wonderful children, that are both bright and friendly. They work well together. My youngest practically worships his big sister, copies everything she does, and she adores him.

I mastered diapers, baby food, learnt to cook for a family, survived a REAL birthday party (an experience I don't plan to repeat on my own), toilet trained a girl (toilet training my boy, it's a whole new experience with no Daddy around to show him how it's done. Mummy's can't pee standing up.) I've been through day one of school, and day two, and day two-hundred. I've been through playdates and Christmases, Easter hunts, and Mother's Days. I've been there in sickness and I've been there in health, at the park, at the zoo, on the ferry, on the train.

Being a mother is wonderful and it's amazing to look at my seven year old and see a beautiful, lively, excited child. I can be proud of my daughter and proud of myself today. Looking backward on the years we've had and forward to the years to come. I don't know what tomorrow will bring but with the tomorrows that are behind me I can feel pretty confident that we can handle it, together.