Our girl

Our girl child has always known how to shine.



From the time she was a tiny person, she has always known how to surprise us. (Where's the ceiling fan?" asks the father type. He is trying to see if the girl child, too small to walk or talk or crawl yet, really knows where her toes are or if it was just a coincidence that she looked at her toes when they were mentioned. He doesn't expect the girl child to know what a ceiling fan is, and so thinks it's the perfect test. What does the girl child do? She looks at the ceiling fan hanging overhead.)



She grew up surrounded by friends from a young age. (She's the third from the left.) And she's still friends with them too.




She's always been willing to try new things. Even if they don't turn out to be her thing. (Paintball is her brother's thing.)



And she tends to charge ahead with lots of commitments even when we warn her she doesn't have the time for them. I'm often glad she does. (She would never have been happy if she hadn't joined the high school theater group. She played the witch in Into the Woods here.)




She was my little ballerina.



Who blossomed into a real one.




She made it through high school, despite the all nighters, as the valedictorian of her class. We were so proud.




And who would have thought, back when we took her to reunions for the first time




That we would attend my 25th reunion with my daughter proudly marching in the p-rade as a member of the future class of 2012.



She survived her first year at college with flying colors, doing the usual thing -- way too many commitments -- but managing it all with flair. At the end of the school year, she flew off for a month of study abroad in Spain.





She's grown from a wonderful, precocious, photogenic child




To a beautiful, intelligent, and talented woman.



Happy birthday, Bunny. I love you.



And your boyfriend's ok too.