Today is Miss Sparkle’s 14th birthday. And no, that isn’t an April Fool’s Day joke…well, at least not this year. As I say every year on this day, the universe was likely trying to layer on a sarcastic commentary when I had Cheyenne on April 1, 1999 – just three months before my 40th birthday. I conclude this because the universe and I have a running tease and poke session going on, and when one has a baby on the cusp of 40 – one is ripe for teasing and poking (and yes, I realize that sounds a little wrong).
Not that Miss Sparkle was unplanned. She was very much planned. As I have explained before in my blog, when women are in a relationship with a younger man that has no children certain decisions must be made. To have children – or not – is one of those decisions. Alas, no one had to twist my arm to convince me. Indeed, I would have kept having children clear through to my 50s if my older children (and later Cheyenne) didn’t look upon it as such an unacceptable aberration. I love babies, toddlers, and little kids. As for teenagers, well, they have their moments. 
The point is, Miss Sparkle was very much planned, anticipated, and gushed over, and the fact that she was born on April Fool’s Day was just a quirky aside.
Here we are 14 years later and the chubby-cheeked, curly-haired girl that clung to my leg because she was so shy is gone. Now I have a blossoming young woman who is loud, opinionated, and has an overabundance of personality (who did she get all those personality traits from I wonder…maybe her dad?). I marvel every year on this day at how quickly the years have flown by…as if in the blink of an eye. But that is the treachery of time – it seems slow in the minutes, hours, and days – but those years, they have a way of quietly rolling one into another until five, ten, or more have passed. It makes me sad that we never really realize how fast they go until after they are already gone.
But today I will not linger in reminiscence of days gone by…today I will celebrate the now. Today I will celebrate Miss Sparkle’s special day. After all, she will only be 14 once and the time will run away with this year soon enough. So let there be cake, balloons, and merriment…let us linger in the minutes, hours, and days…let us live in the reality that every moment we have together is a gift. Happy birthday my darling little girl.
Day one thousand three hundred and sixty-three of the new forty – obla di obla da
Ms. C