Summer of 2007

The quiet conversations I have with my first-born often send me reeling, but I know she still sucks her thumb when she's tired; so I haven't lost her yet.

Even when she asks that we go in another room to discuss something that should be kept private; I see how she spins her Nana's blanket and trust that I have more time.

Then, I see photos like this one...among many(yes, I know I have a problem) that represent our summer of 2007.

The summer she learned to snap and tie her shoes. The summer she discovered compassion. The year she experienced the joy of weightlessness in water...and that "going under" only unwraps an unknown world of excitement, rather than terror.

Maybe it was the first time she put on blue jeans, or got on the bike that was just a little too big; but something tells me I don't know the half of what she has in store.

All this time I thought I would have to be Lil's buffer to a world that may not know how to "handle" her; and now I think she might be mine.