My Favorite Things

In honor of my daughters 20th birthday, I decided to come up with a list of some of my most favorite moments over the past 20 years. Of course there are hundreds more, but because I'm getting old and usually my moments of remembrance occur when I get up for a pee in the middle of the night and vanish by morning, these are what you get . . .

20.       The way you sound like a Star Wars fighter machine when you sneeze.  Pew Pew Pew … (Clearly I’m not up on my Star Wars lingo – but I know you know what I mean)

19.       You have a killer ‘throwing arm’ – it impresses me every time I see you throw a baseball or football.

18.       The way you interact with little kids – you are enthusiastic and make them feel special.

17.       When you were three and Grandma was showing you the old chicken house, you looked inside, saw an old cow skull, and said  very seriously “Grandma, I think your chickens are extinct”.

16.       When driving through the mountains, you were in awe of all the “Hindu’s” (Hoodoos)

 

A Drumheller Hoodoo

15.       The picture you drew when you were in Kindergarten that showed me lying on the ground with a wine bottle in my hand and surrounded by empties that was captioned “My Mom likes to drink wine”.

14.       When you were 5 and we took you to Costco, and you laid in the cart and hollered “Help! Someone let me out of this cage!” the entire time we were there.

13.       Your childhood dream to be a ‘window washer’ just so you could hang off tall buildings like Spiderman.

12.       When you decided to participate in the High Jump at track and field but didn’t realize you couldn’t dive over the bar.

11.       When you sing, my heart soars. I miss hearing you every single day.

10.       When you were 6, you told me you figured you could only handle living with me until you were 12, at which point you were going to ‘make it on my own’.

9.         Trying to explain to you why you couldn’t keep 25 bumblee bee caterpillars in your closet corner – and the subsequent attempt to explain why they were ‘all shriveled up like that’.

8.         The day you tried for hours to ‘catch’ a gopher just so you could have a pet.

7.         The way your eyes light up when you are telling a story, or flashing a smile.

6.         During the last baseball game of the year (age 8), you belted out the “Star Spangled Banner” for the entire duration of the third inning. A proud Canadian indeed ;)

5.         Watching you jump off the moving ride on mower and sprinting across the yard because you saw a spider.

4.         That time you went to school and told everyone that we went to a party on the weekend, and I brought 'Cocaine'. We worked VERY hard at sounding out the word "Kokanee" from that moment forward. 

3.         The look on your face when you bit into a chocolate and discovered it was filled with Brandy.

2.         On your first day at your new daycare, you told all the teachers that you needed to behave or “my Mom will find someone to adopted me”.

1.         And my most favorite is when you wrap your arms around me and say “I love you Mom”.

I’ll love you forever,

I’ll like you for always,

As long as I am living –

My baby you’ll be.

Thanks Robert Munsch for the words I will

always sing to my beautiful daughter :) ...

and reminding me that it is ok to drive across town

with a ladder on my car and do a B&E as long as I give 

my big girl a snuggle and a song ;)