Earlier I was looking through the pictures in my gallery to make the badges for my Entrecard widgets, for a specific picture of some flowers my husband gave me for my birthday right after I found out I was pregnant with the Kiddo.  This of course meant I was scrolling through hundreds of pictures taken between then and now since I was going backwards from the current date.

Pictures from the Kiddo’s second birthday, second Christmas, the first time she met my sister’s youngest daughter, and then her second Easter.  Her first birthday, then her first Christmas.  Her first bout with the flu, which she caught after her first holiday pictures with her other cousin (my husband’s brother’s daughter).  Her first Thanksgiving.

And then the pictures I took of her after I got home from one of the most upsetting days of my life – the day I had to drive my mom, brother & his girlfriend up north after receiving a phone call from my grief-stricken father that my sister’s son had died during the night.  He was only 9.5 months old, and the only explanation the coroner could give was SIDS.  My daughter was born about two and a half weeks after he was, so I was definitely paranoid after that.  I think that night I checked on her at least a handful of times as she slept just to make sure I could still hear her breathing.  At the funeral, she was an absolute angel, and even though my husband and I were a little uncertain about whether to take her or not, both my sister & my mom said it would be fine, and that she would most likely help bring some light to an otherwise dark day.  And they were right.

Then loads and loads of other pictures preceding that, most of the Kiddo, but a few here and there of her cousins (him and his older sister), taken on my mom’s camera, which I had uploaded to my computer after his death, to make a picture DVD with.

To her first Easter, and then to her birth.  The monthly belly shots preceding her birth.  And then finally the roses I had been looking for.

It seems hard to believe that she’ll be three years old in a few months.  Every now and then when she’s doing mundane things like brushing her teeth, or standing next to the t.v. tray in the living room, I’ll think back to how, not too long ago, I had to hold her over the sink so she could spit water out of her mouth after I brusehd her teeth.  Or how she used to bonk her head on the t.v. tray because her head barely came up to its height.  And now she can lean over the sink without help.  And she practically towers over the t.v. tray now.

And she’s maybe only one inch shorter than my brother-in-law’s oldest daughter who is eleven months older than the Kiddo.

She’s growing up fast.  Slow down there, girl!