Happy Birthday, Miss Delirium!

As hard as it is for me to believe, it was 17 years ago today somewhere around 2:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time in Long Beach, California that I gave birth to my first daughter -Amanda Elizabeth. Her middle name is in tribute to my mother who also claims today as her birthday - albeit quite a few years earlier than Amanda! Happy birthday, Mom!

Those of you who have been regular readers of my blog are probably quite familiar with the variations in the color of Amanda's hair but when she first came home from the hospital she had a beautiful head of soft brown hair that even back then refused to be tamed! I guess I should have taken it as a sign of things to come but alas, who knew that in my arms I was holding a future wanna-be zombie?!?

In looking back over the pictures in the collage below (which you can click to make bigger), it's easy to see how much Amanda has changed over the years - from a blonde-haired little girl to a multi-color-haired teenager as well as a few stops in between.


No doubt Amanda will do some more changing between now and her 18th birthday next year - which also happens to fall on the scheduled day for graduation of the Norwich Free Academy Class of 2010 and the day when she will walk across the stage, receive her diploma, and step into the confusing world of life after high school. She thinks that graduating on her 18th birthday is going to stink though I think it's pretty cool ... but then again, what do I know? I actually liked high school!

For today, though, we're going to celebrate her 17th birthday with preparations for a small party tomorrow evening with family, friends, and a Tardis-shaped birthday cake. For those of you who aren't exactly sure what that is, come on back tomorrow when I hope to have a post on the creation of this epic cake ... or epic fail depending on how well I do! The things we do for our kids on their birthdays ... !

Until then, if you'd like to pop by Amanda's blog (where she doesn't post anywhere near as often as I think she should!) and leave her a birthday wish or two on the post I broke into her blog and left then click on over to Artcetera and feel free to tell her that I said she needs to update her blog! Nothing says happy birthday quite like nagging from blog friends!

Happy birthday, Amanda, and I hope one of your wishes is that I don't screw up your cake!