Wednesday, September 14, 2005

14 Years Ago Today


Fourteen years ago today, I was lying in the hospital after being there since the evening before. We knew we would be there for a while, so we stopped at Bob's Big Boy and had their 2.99 special. A burger, fries and hot fudge cake! YUM. Plus they had vinyl seats.

We were having our first baby. While David slept in the chair in the middle of that late Sunday night, I couldn't sleep. I watched TV, pre-cable in a very nice comfortable room. Nothing on TV. It was a very long night. The next day, at nearly 1:00 in the afternoon, we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. No hair, big blue eyes and pretty. Already pretty. Not all babies are pretty when they are born, but she was.

Our hearts swelled as we held her for the first time. Nothing on earth is like holding your baby for the first time. Something surreal about going to the hospital as a couple and coming home with this new little life. Now entrusted to us. To raise as a good person and to be loved thru anything, for all eternity.

David had take a bunch of photos to our neighborhood photo store, while I slept. He brought back a lobster and steak dinner and a bottle of Champagne. Little did we know, the hospital also sent us a steak dinner for two as well. Luckily my parents were there to eat dinner with us!

The next morning, less than twelve hours later, we brought her home. We couldn't be more in love with this perfect baby girl. She was 7.7 pounds, being a former bartender, I never forgot the size! I was a week past my due date when she decided to make her entrance into the world.

We brought her to her new home and just stared at her in awe. Her tiny little fingers and toes. I remember looking at her fingers when I held her for the first time and thinking her fingers were miniature versions of mine.

I had trouble nursing. A nurse came by the house to check on me and showed me how to get her to latch on while nursing. I thought I had it, but after the nurse left, the frustration grew as I could not do it. I went to a breastfeeding class where all the mothers sat around in a circle and a nurse would help us teach our babies to latch on. We had to wake them to get them to eat on command. It all worked out well, she and I figured it out!

We didn't let her out of our site. We had a bassinet in our bedroom and her car seat nearby for her to nap in as well. Eventually she lost some of her almost nonexistent hair from the back of her head. It grew back. We took her to the office at two days old to show her off. Then we headed to Nordstrom and I got nasty comments from old women who thought a two day old baby should not be shopping! We figured she would turn out to be a shopper. Nope, that was reserved for her future sister.

She was a smart baby from very young. We read to her from the first day we brought her home. David would come home early and have her lying on his chest as he talked on the phone to people at the office. We were in love. Deep unconditional love.

I enjoyed dressing her in different outfits and taking photos of her. I thought she looked darling in a bonnet we bought when I was about six months along. Old fashioned but cute.

We would take her out to dinner with us and she was very good. We walked into one restaurant and she shook excitedly when she saw all the fans on the ceiling. She laughed like crazy when she say my parents dog. She would sit in her little car seat and smile up at me and my heart melted. Big blue eyes and a toothless smile. I felt such love and warmth in my heart.

As she grew, she proved to be very smart. She was funny. She loved dressing up. She loved singing. She was just a pleasure to have around. When she was seven months old, I found out I was pregnant again. She was going to have a little sister. We had planned on giving her a sister close in age, as were one of my brothers and me. We were very close and I wanted that for my first daughter. Also, I had heard once they hit two, we might change our mind!

We continued to read to her and then both girls when her sister came along. She went to sleep at 6 PM and woke up at 6 AM. She got to a point where we thought she needed more socialization, so we enrolled her in Montessori school at three. She loved school and it was our invitation to meet parents and some became friends. She didn't like the very first day of school though. She got under a table and had a tantrum. After that little episode she settled into a very nice schedule.

By the time she was four she was reading on her own. She was asked to go in and read to the kindergarten class, and she was still in preschool. Books were a huge part of her life then and still are today. By the time she was in first grade we moved to Laguna Beach. Only one town over, but we still took her back to Montessori for two more years. We just felt the foundation of Montessori was a good start and a lesson in a lifetime of learning. It worked. We finally enrolled her in the public school up the street and she was ahead of the third grade class. She made the transition very easy. We were nervous, but the director of the school told us that after third grade, they were pretty much ready to take the Montessori method into real life. She was right.

She has always been an A student. We were lucky there. We still read at night, but the girls would read to us. It was a nightly ritual that we didn't want to end. Those were wonderful moments.

When she was sixteen months old, we brought home her sister. We had purchased a real life sized doll for her as we were going to have our own. The first day we brought her sister home, she bopped her in the head. We had to let her know that it was okay to not want to share our attention, but hitting was not allowed. So, she thought of other ways. When her little sister was napping in the car seat, we would put her in the play pen. She was safe when we did that with her. But, she opted to throw stuffed animals into the play pen and not let her sister sleep. Or the narcolepsy swing. It worked wonders on her, but she would stop it when her sister was in it. We put it back in a corner and still, she climbed up on the couch to stop the swing. But she loved her sister and they were indeed close.

I continued dressing her in cute little outfits not only because she looked so darling, but also because at some point, I new she would not allow me to dress her anymore. And that is what happened. She chose her own outfits and I let her wear what she wanted, providing it was appropriate for the weather.

Today, she is a very smart, witty, sarcastic, beautiful, loving, caring and ever changing fourteen year old. She just started high school last week. She wear shorts and t-shirts year round. She is not a slave to fashion. She has confidence enough to not care what other people think of her, something I learned, sort of, around forty. She is her own person and is not influenced easily. She is a wonderful poet. She reads prolifically. She enjoys Anime. She has become quite good at cooking. She is a really nice girl. She loves to sing. She loves music. We are so very proud of her and we love her with all of our heart.



Today she turns 14. Happy Birthday my sweet Zoe!

18 comments:

Cindy said...

Happy Birthday Zoe!

Jaded said...

Fantastic post...thanks for sharing that with us!

Happy Birthday, Zoe!

Grumpy Old Man said...

A very accurate and moving reminiscence.

Zoƫ, your father is very proud of you!

Just Jan said...

Happy Birthday wishes to Zoe. YOu discribed that beautifully.

BonnyT said...

What a wonderful birthday gift to her, that story.

Happy Birthday Zoe!

TheMommason said...

Happy Birthday Zoe!!! And Way to Go MOM!

Heidi said...

Happy Birthday Zoe! Hope your having a great day..Wishing you the best of health and happiness always.

Thanx for sharing the story Nancy.

for_the_lonely said...

Happy Birthday Zoe!!! And to Nancy..congratulations on such a special day! :)

Love,
Sarah

zbjernak said...

Happy Birth Day to Nancy....

and happy birthday to zoe...

A birthday shall be celebrating with mom...for on tht particular day...mom suffered the most pain one can endure in a lifetime....

so bravo nancy...and zoe...be good to your mummy

very brief and compact timeline details of zoe....so sweet

but going out on 2 days old...it will be a taboo in malaysia...

we have to go through a 1 month period of confinement...
where the mother will rest most of the time and the baby will be taken care of by "confinement-lady" except feeding time...the new mom are suppose to rest and not to touch water too often...eat lots lots of herbs,gingers, and etc.

the "confinement-lady" will do all the laundry...cook for the family and take care of the baby.

the working mom will have 2 months of paid-leave for each baby...after birth...mums are expected to live like a QUEEN....being attended by full-time "confinement-lady" in-waiting

Pete said...

what a really great post.

I can't wait for My Girl to grow up like this. (but also want her to never grow out of being a bub either.....oh well....can't stop progress)

Anne said...

happy day to zoe and her parents.
hope it was a good day for all.

Blogzie said...

Indeed, a very Happy Birthday to Zoe and congratulations to you as well, Nancy.

Beautifully written.

Can I just say one thing?

I MISS Bob's Big Boy!

Jan said...

Wonderful post.
Happy Birthday Zoe!!!

author said...

damn I missed Zoe's Birthday !!
I am so sorry, I didn't check this blog yesterday.

happy 14th Zoe !!

Nancy said...

Thank you all for your Birthday wishes for Zoe. She had a good day...I think.

And Blogzie, I miss Bob's Big Boy too.

And Z, we could all use a confinement lady when we have a baby! Sounds heavenly!

Thank you again!

the bright one said...

You are a great writer mommy, that's where we get it from. I didn't inherit your good memory though. I got your sense of humor, kindness, and so much more. I'm not sure where I got the reading from.

When I came upstairs on my birthday morning, daddy's lips were all blubbery, he had just read your post. You made daddy cry! Not that that's hard, I've done it several times myself. But way to go. Thank you very much for the post, it's one of the best presents I could have gotten.

I'm still working on your poem. When I read your explanations of my Katharine torment I laughed all over again. If we were still little, I'd do it all over again.

And of course I'll be good to mommy, she deserves the best. Thank you very much for the birthday wishes.

Mommy, I love you so much. Thank you for the post, it's things like this that I love more than anything you could buy me. Just knowing you're thinking about me and feeling your love is better than anything else you can give me. Thank you very much,
Sincerity and love,
Zoe

Phoebe said...

Zoe, while I'm just your aunt, I feel that we have a lot in common. I too wear shorts whenever the weather is appropriate. Don't much care for shopping for clothes--although I do like weird socks, something you Californians don't need.

Your father learned to read at four whereas I told my father that I would learn when I went into the first grade which was when you were supposed to do it!

I remember when your folks brought you to NY for Sophie's 90th birthday. Your mother didn't feed you "real" food yet, but cousin Jeanne shoved birthday cake in your mouth which you ate with great pleasure. Your mother looked, how shall I put it? "startled". Jeanne calmly said, "It's okay, I'm a doctor." When Katharine came along, she ate Cheerios off the floor and your mother just shrugged. Second child live in a different world from first children!

Happy belated birthday from your doting aunt.

the bright one said...

*giggle* Thankies for the birthday wishes. I've heard that story before, but not the cheerios part. It's a fun image.

I just read something mommy sent me and I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And no, it's not indigustion.