Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog

Rachel was actually born on a Wednesday, and because of the date of her birthday, sometimes has to share her birthday with Mother's Day. She is more gracious about this in later years than she was about this as a child. She was born 3 weeks early, and as the youngest, has spent most of her life "catching up" to her siblings, who are 3 and 5 years older than her. Now that they are grown, they share more of the stories about the teasing and the sibling stuff that I swear we did not see - Rachel took her licks from Matt & Sarah, but you know, it pleases us so much that they are all such good friends today. It did take Matt a lot longer to treat her as an equal - there is that tale of the time Rachel and Matt flew to Australia together to visit Sarah. 12 hours in the air and they were barely speaking when the plane landed. But in July Rachel will be a bridesmaid in her brother's wedding; Australia was years ago now.

No tales today, it's her birthday. Rachel was my baby companion for her first five years, as we shuttled her sibs to nursery and elementary school. I think she lived in either a car seat or a stroller, as we walked to school or drove around on errands. I know she never got to nap in her crib. She made friends with the other younger children of my new PTA friends, spent time under desks when I volunteered in the classroom. Sometimes I think she did Brownies twice, and certainly she was kicking a soccer ball around a field at a very young age. And then again, when her sister left for college and her brother was already there, she was home alone with her parents, who suddenly had a lot more time to pay attention to her comings and goings. It was no surprise when she turned 16, she got her driver's license and spent weekends visiting her sister at college. I think she was grateful I returned to work at that point.

We have had some wonderful adventures with Rachel, including chaperoning a soccer team to Hawaii, and visiting her abroad when she studied in Bella Italia. She is a talker, will chat with me on the phone; when she first moved into a college apartment, would call from Trader Joes for chicken recipes. To say I miss her around the house is an understatement of the highest order.

But really, to be brief, all I want to do today is wish my youngest, my charming daughter, my baby, a very happy birthday. And this is my most recent picture of my baby girl, with Addison and our newest baby, her nephew Sebastian.