6.17

Happy birthday to my sweet baby girl who turns 11 today.

I thought about sharing her birth story, but then I realized how usually a child's birth story is only fascinating to the child and the mom. :) But I will say that 11 years ago today I was 7 days overdue with my sweet little cheeky first born.

And apparently a baby can pack on a lot of pounds in 7 days, cause as you may or may not know, Arissa might not be hefty now but on June 17, 2000 she was a whopping 9 lbs 11 ounces. I remember how at the time when I told people her weight, they would look at me in shock or say WHOA! and I, having nothing to compare that too, didn't see what the big deal was.

Now, having seen lots of babies (my own & others) come and go, I realize how big 9.11 is and I'm proud of that number and that my body didn't just give up halfway through!

To know baby Arissa is to know and love the hip brace that kept her frog-legged for the first year of her life because of a displaced hip. (Guess who still has that hip brace....my Nana. She keeps everything.) The doctor told us that at worst, she would have to have surgery at age 10, or at best, she'd avoid surgery but not be able to do any kind of gymnastics or cheer leading. But lil baby Arissa didn't like that prognosis apparently and 11 years later she has avoided surgery and is doing the splits and crazy amazing flips like there's no tomorrow. You can't be around her for more than 3 minutes without her doing a flip of some kind. :)

I could write for hours all the wonderful, special things about her.



Instead I went in search of an old baby picture of her, which there aren't billions of because she was a baby back when we had to walk uphill both ways to school (and didn't have a digital camera yet). But during my search I had so much fun that I got a bunch to put on here.

This one is a favorite of mine for two reasons....

The cute lil blue-eyed child with a french manicure that was not easy to do, AND the beautiful blue hyrdrangeas she's sitting by. :)

Fuzzy head, BIG old cheeks, and that wittle nose.....LOVE LOVE LOVE:

"Kissy lips".....

...as popular in 2001 as they are in 2011:

With Daddy....and a carebear:











With sister #1:











And #2:













Those cheeks!!!


















There's just no one like her and she makes everyone around her so happy.







I hope she has a fab-u-lous birthday....breakfast with Grandpa, hanging out @ Nana's, and a family outing in the evening.





I love this girl.