Flashback Friday...Happy Birthday Coree!

Thirteen years ago today:



My dreams of a little girl came true.

With Troy, we kept it a surprise. With Patrick, we peeked. I was tempted to keep Coree a surprise, but just couldn't do it. Just the same...I didn't believe she was real until I heard that squeal. An unmistakable, girlie squeal. Then I started squealing louder than her...only she stopped and I still couldn't. I was SO happy to have a daughter.

My doctor had herself just had a baby girl after two boys...and she absolutely knew the emotion I was going through. What is it about having two of one gender that makes you believe you might never have the other? Don't get me wrong...I would have been fine with that...downright elated...and WAS thrilled to have another boy after Corenne...but it was just such a joyful experience to have both.

Coree was born at lunch time. I, in effect, chose her birthday...since my labor was induced with her. She came one week early. My doctor delivered three babies over her lunch hour...all of us induced, all of us BEGGED to be...but she made me labor and wait till last...since the other two were med-free, and I had the epidural. That, and she had to go pump for her own baby. THEN she delivered me...after reminding me to be grateful because I had begged her for this. (Before you go thinking she was being snarky...you have to understand, she was my doctor for my other two...and the miscarriage/surgery before that...and was like a friend to me...and all my friends are hilarious. It's a rule.)

Enough of the labor stories...except to say Coree was the easiest. By far. It almost felt like cheating.

Instead of tales of labor, I'd like to share some early memories of my daughter...my solitary, sweet, sassy, sensitive little girl...who is now officially a teenager. In no particular order:

1. Hearing her voice for the first time...that above-mentioned, feminine squeal. I can still hear it if I close my eyes and replay that scene in my mind.

2. Her big, beautiful, baby eyes.

3. Pink, frilly clothes...and decorating a pink, frilly nursery with butterflies.

(Trivia: After we got it all set up...Cliff took a look around the perimeter of the room and said, "If this is a boy, he's screwed.")

4. How as soon as she was able to climb out of her crib, she'd get out, throw all of her books back into it, climb back in...and "read" until I came in to get her.

5. Pink, Minnie Mouse pacifiers (called Nuh-nuhs by Coree)...until age 2 1/2, when I had to say, "enough" and confiscate them. Jake was born when she was just 21 months old. She loved to lay next to him with one hand on her pacifier, and the other on his. Then she'd take his out until he started crying...then plug it back in.

6. Watching her dance to music...especially if it was in front of the whole Primary during Singing Time (I was the Primary President from the time she was 6 weeks old, until THEEE Sunday she was old enough to go into nursery. How's that for irony?) Anyway, there's just something about a baby dancing to the beat that fills me with joy.

7. Climbing into bed with us in the morning. THAT was only a favorite after I got the "only after you can see the sun" rule to sink in.

8. How even when she was a tiny baby, she had her favorite ladies who she would hold her arms out to for a hug...whether it was in the commissary or during Sacrament Meeting (and we'd have to pass her back however many pews to get her hug, just to keep her from screaming).

9. Speaking of screaming in Sacrament Meeting...the time she found a sucked-on, fuzzy, hard candy in the hymnal holder, and Cliff caught it a centimeter from her mouth...JUST as the Bishop was starting to speak...and she started screaming, "CORRREEEE'S! MINE! MINE!" and Cliff had to run her out to the foyer with his hand over her mouth, like a football to the end zone, while the Bishop repeated what he had just said. I was nursing newborn Jake in the Mothers' Lounge and missed it all...but I still love the story!

10. Messes that were NOT so funny at the time...but are now hilarious. "Face-painting" Jacob, her sneaky, open-fridge "butter bath", that potty-training story she refuses to let me repeat. SO glad I got pictures (Well, except for that potty-training story).

11. Feeding her a pickle for the first time, and Troy watching her intently as it approached her mouth...and him yelling (very seriously and anxiously) at her, "Don't do it! It's a trick!"

12. How she had her daddy wrapped around her finger. He couldn't look at her without tearing up for the first several months. It was priceless.

13. Watching her grow and change. From a fuzzy, sort-of-monkey-looking newborn (in a cute way) to a chubby-cheeked toddler, to a preschooler eager to learn everything, to a confident student, to an unsure pre-adolescent...and now growing into a fun, clever, beautiful, thoughtful young lady. She's a wonderful daughter, and a good friend to others. And I'm SO grateful to be her mom.