Happy Birthday Little One!

She’s ten years old today!  TEN!!  Double-digits!!!  Where, O where does the time go?

Ten years ago today I became a father.  6:12 pm to be precise.  It was a cool, rainy day, a Tuesday if I remember correctly.  The first child for me and my wife, both of us in our 30s by then, most of our friends already with children at this point.  It was an exciting day, and my wife, in the thrall of induced childbirth, didn’t beat me up too bad.  Plus we had the best doctor in the state of New Jersey, so though there were a couple of jittery moments here and there (trouble with the wife’s epidural, the baby not getting enough O2 at one point), I had no doubts that we would have a healthy, wonderful child.

And we do!

She is awesome, a perfect combination of my wife’s best qualities with mine.  I love pal’ing around with her, reading side by side, watching weird spooky things on teevee together, talking about goofy stuff on long car rides.  She is my inspiration, and I fell in love with her the first time I held her, 3,650 days ago.

Happy 10^th Birthday Little One!

Then (at seven months):

And now (apple picking today):