Brenna

The other day I said to my daughter, Brenna, "I have something to tell you."

"What is it?" she asked.

I said, "Your birthday's on Saturday."

"I know that," she responded.

I asked, "You know I post photos on my blog for birthdays, right?"

"Oh. Yeh. Well, just don't post a current one."

So here you see an "older" photo of a younger Brenna. I adore these photos, taken when she was 5.

From the time she was small, we walked a mile and a quarter to school and a mile and a quarter back home, morning and evening, with her older sister. For a year or so I carried Brenna in a snugli. Then she advanced to a stroller, then a wagon, and finally she walked herself.

After she was about 2 she began taking Lizzie, a homemade cloth baby, with her. (All of the cloth dolls were named Lizzie, it's just that one was Lizzie Blue, another Wee Lizzie, etc.) This Lizzie is a little larger and sewn in more of a baby shape than the other Lizzies, with bent knees and arms and with a rounded body shape.

Brenna is so pleased with herself in these photos because she just figured out how to carry Lizzie without having to hold her in her hands, thereby allowing her to hold my hand or pick up treasures along the way and also ensuring that Lizzie wouldn't get lost.

In the second photo, she's holding her head up so we can see Lizzie's face.

Ah, Brenna, you are even more wonderful now than you were then.

I love you and I hope you have a happy birthday.