Happy Birthday Nana!!!!

Happy Birthday to you Nana!!! We are extra happy today because today is your birthday!!! We decided to wear two of our favorite outfits that you got us last weekend. We were so excited for Mommy to take our picture that we giggled and smiled super big. This is the first time Mommy has been able to catch both of us smiling at the same time :) 

Hi Nana it's me, Ada. In honor of your birthday I am demonstrating my feats of strength during my morning tummy time. Look how high I can hold my head! Aren't you proud of me Nana? I am trying SO hard to turn over... any day now I think :)

Look at me Nana!! Hi Nana!!! Can you see me? I can see you!

Hi Nana! It's me Margot. In honor of your birthday I am demonstrating my feats of patience during tummy time. See how patient and quiet I can be? I thinking super hard about how to do what Ada is doing, I did it first by the way... just  didn't feel like doing it while Mommy had the camera. I am sorta ready for my nap. 

Hi Nana, it's me Mommy! I was not ready for my close up this morning so you will just have to imagine my smiling face. I wish I was there to wish you a happy birthday in person and whisk you away from work and straight to a spa for the day of beauty you deserve. Alas, this delight will have to wait until another day. Thank you for being my Mom all these years. As a tribute to you here are a few of my favorite memories: 

- waking up from my nap in the house at 311 to the hum of your sewing machine. You were listening to the radio (Chuck Smendal - I don't know if that was the guys name but that's how I remember it). You greeted me with a hug and helped me get settled on the blue green shag carpeting in your room with my own sewing card and big plastic needle and yarn. I always felt so special getting to share those post nap moments with you. 

- baking in the kitchen with you in the "new" house. You always gave me my own little bit of dough when you were making biscuits or a pie. You showed me how to use my tiny rolling pin to roll the dough so that it would fit my little pie pan. I always kneaded the dough too long and it always baked up to be as hard as a cracker but I couldn't wait to present it to Dad when he came home from work. Dad was always very pleased with my surprise and would dutifully crunch away at his "treat" while I looked on, beaming with pride. 

- trips to the library. I can still remember the smell of that old building. I couldn't wait to get to the children's section to see the pet gerbils that lived there. Remember the time we got to buy a gerbil for the library? I was sad that it couldn't come home with us but happy that we got to visit it so often. I loved that we got to spend as much time as we wanted choosing books and wandering through the rows of bookshelves. Remember the time I got to put my rabbit collection in the display case? And when I won the poster contest? And the reading summer reading contest? I guess I was a pretty nerdy kid huh? :)

- this past August.. on that Wednesday afternoon when you came to Rex Hospital. Do you remember my face when you walked in the door ? I remember yours. I sat there holding Margot and when I introduced her to you for the first time, I remember the pure love on your face as the joyful tears spilled down your cheeks. Love for your new granddaughter and love and relief at seeing your own daughter had made it safely through the surgery. I remember that first week at home and how hard you struggled to let me take the lead and follow my instructions on the care of my new babies. How eager you were to help and give advice. How stubbornly I clung to my own ideas only to abandon some of them days later and gratefully adopt what you had previously suggested. Most of all I remember seeing you walk down the sidewalk to your car after the week was through. How my heart felt broken and I couldn't understand why. How surprised I was at the bond that was created in those few days and the pain I felt at your leaving. How much I missed you in the weeks that followed and how grateful I was when you were able to visit again. How my heart soared (and still does) watching you care for and love on Ada and Margot. 

Thank you, Mom, for loving me the way that I am with all my faults and stubborn tendencies. I love you so much and am so glad that we are close enough to share our lives with you and Dad these days. I hope your birthday is the best yet.