Just Yesterday

The calendar says it is your birthday, but something must be wrong.   It says you are turning 14 and it is just not possible.  Somebody must have switched this one for a different one. 

 It was just yesterday the doctor said, "It's a girl!"  and just yesterday we told your sweet great grandmother that you would be named after her and we all couldn't believe how perfect you were.

It was just yesterday I was tying bows in your hair and now today you are tying buns and french braids in your own hair.

It's not possible that you are 14.  I don't know where this beautiful, sarcastic, compassionate teenager came from and I'd love to keep her around, but it's not possible she's mine.  I just had a baby, it seems like yesterday.

That little boy you played with in the mud and on the swingset in our backyards now has stubble.  It is not possible, there must still be some dirt there from your playdate.

You seem to almost be eye to eye with me now and I don't understand it.  You must be standing on your time out stool or the step stool you use in the bathroom to reach the sink.

Why are you asking to borrow my clothes and shoes?  They won't fit you, you barely started walking, it seems like just yesterday.

And why are we taking about driving and saving for a car?  You just got a bike with training wheels and you weren't very good at it.  How would you ever drive a car?

It must have been  just yesterday we signed you up for kindergarten and I don't understand how it's possible I'm signing you up for high school classes.  Why are we talking about what you are going to do with the rest of your life because just yesterday I figured out your sleep schedule and your naps and your bottle feedings.

"You see, I used to think time was a thief, stealing everything I loved, but I see now that you give before you take and every day is a gift;

every hour,

every minute,

every second."

- Alice through the Looking Glass

You are my gift.  Please stop growing and having birthdays.  I love you every hour, every minute, every second, from all the yesterdays to all the tomorrows.

Happy 14th Birthday, Eva!