Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Happy Birthday Precious Caitlin!!

21 years ago today, my life changed forever. It was a dark and stormy night - wait, wrong story. Actually, I was on my way to work - as I opened the front door to leave, my water broke. I'm thankful to this day that it happened before I got to work. I would have hated to explain to our dear baby girl why she was born in a Veterinary Clinic! Cait was 2 full weeks early - I promise you the last time she has been early for anything! DH drove like a madman to the Dr.'s office, he said "yep, your water broke" and sent us directly to the hospital. At that point, Cait apparently decided to go ahead and wait another 2 weeks. After some interesting incidents in the pre-labor room, Doc decided to induce labor. There is nothing quite like laying there in all your "glory" and hear (from above)" hey Kathy, how's it going?" WHAT? Turns out that one of our clinic clients was the head maintenance man at the hospital and just happened to be working on the air conditioning! Gotta love a small town, right? I won't go into all of the details, but 16 1/2 hours later Cait arrived, all 8 1/2 pounds and 23 inches of her! (keep in mind that I'm only 64 inches tall lol) Doc cracked that it was a good thing she came early, or she might have come out walking. As they settled me into my room just after Midnight, my manager and her husband stopped in - they were on their way back from a party in Austin and wanted to check on us. The nurse told them to go on in and say hey. Like I said, only in a small town! The next day, we must have had 20 people in and out all day. I played the gracious hostess and had a ball. The nurses kept telling me that I might want to rest, but I felt great. Boy, I should have listened to them. As we drove off the following day, the terror and exhaustion finally hit after all the euphoria. I realized that I had NO idea what I was doing and neither did DH! Lucky for us, Cait was the easiest child I have ever been around.



We were blessed with a child who smiled and laughed almost the entire time she was awake. She was also a ham - if she started fussing, all we had to do was get out the camera and she would break into a huge, cheesy (or in this case) carroty grin!

As you can see, she began critiquing music at a very early age . . .

Her first cassette player. We actually still have this. Who knew it would lead to a life long Ipod addiction? It's a shame that Ipods aren't as cheap as those little cassette players!

She has always loved the camera, and the camera loves her. . . .

From Little Mermaid (see Marty, I did sew some once upon a time!) . . .

To High School Drum Major - Cait has always loved to "dress up" . . .

From "Middle School Good Citizen of the Year" . . . .

To High School Gangster - NOT . . .

From meeting a favorite performer . . .

To being a featured performer . . . . (click to enlarge if you'd like to read this)

From meeting Tigger at Disneyworld . . . .

To marching at Disneyworld in the Main Street USA parade . . .

From proud high school graduate . . .

To confident, strong and accomplished college student!

It has been such an incredible journey raising our beautiful daughter. It took us many attempts and failed pregnancies before I was able to carry a child to term. God knew what he was doing, he blessed us with the most perfect daughter we could ask for. She has grown into such a poised, intelligent and talented young woman. Happy Birthday baby girl - we are so proud of you!

26 comments:

Deb said...

what a lovely tribute...Happy Birthday to your daughter....

Unknown said...

What a wonderful tribute to an extremely talented daughter! A new chapter of her life has begun!! sue

Anonymous said...

you tell such wonderful stories.i could read you all day.
my d's daughters childbirth was almost the same as yours.
why do oeple say such things like that?my OWN father said,i'm surprised Pam wasn't sitting on the steps waiting to be picked up to come home.
i ws 86 lbs back then.,Not pg.Pam,my first born weighed 7.5.the heaviest child that day.
but 7.5'' is very normal it hurt my feelings.oh well old stuff.
i am so glad to be back.now i'm gonna go see your s&ps..ann

Confessions of a Plate Addict said...

Hi Kat!! Happy birthday to Miss Cait!! I hope you are having a wonderful celebration today! Take care of yourself, my friend!!...hugs...Debbie

Joyce said...

Happy birthday to Cait. Lovely post that made me tear up a bit since I am a softy when it comes to heartfelt posts.
Joyce

Robin said...

Such a sweet, wonderful story!! Happy Birthday Cait!!

{{{HUGS}}}

Robin :o)

Terrie's Lil' Piece of Serenity said...

Happy Birthday to your beautiful daughter. It was fun to see the pictures of her growing up. And to hear your story.

I have 1 daughter. She was born at 24 weeks. a whole 2 lbs and 10 oz. and 15 inches long. I also feel blessed to have my baby girl. See, we have even more in common!
Hugs, Terrie

DesignTies said...

Happy Birthday to Cait!! She's accomplished a lot in her life so far.... I'm sure the future holds lots more great things for her :-)

Thanks for sharing your uno/dos story on our blog :-) Sorry you had to settle for a dos!!

Kelly

Marty@A Stroll Thru Life said...

Oh Kat, I have been so busy, I almost missed this. I am so glad I didn't. Cait is just about the cutest and definitely the person with the most talent that I know of. YOur pic are all so great. I just loved every one of them. I love it that you sewed her a costume. She looked so adoreable. Tell her Happy Birthday and a big Hug from me. I know you are so proud of her and you really should be. Hugs, Marty

Bargain Decorating with Laurie said...

Happy Birthday Cait! What precious photos, and I love the way you tied them all together. laurie

xinex said...

Beautiful tribute to a beautiful and talented child who belongs to a beautiful family! Great post, Kathy! Happy birthday, Cait!...Christine

Belle (from Life of a...) said...

So it's a big birthday week at your house too!!! Happy Birthday to your sweet Cait...

Blondie's Journal said...

Happy Birthday dear Cait!! And to you as well, Kathy. This was a cute and funny tribute to the light of your life.

Both of my girls were early. I think they just got bored of the womb and anxious to get out and start seeing the world!!

Great post!! Enjoy the reat of the week! :-)

xoxo
Jane

Happy To Be/ Gl♥ria said...

Happy Birthday Cait...what a wonderful post you did for your talented daughter my friend..how proud you must be...and WOW!! almost 2 feet tall when she was born...You are lucky you didn't have to buy her shoes right off ha ha!! May you have a great day my friend...hugs and smiles Gl♥ria

The Quintessential Magpie said...

Happy Birthday to your sweet daughter! She shares a birthday with my husband and his sister!

XO,

Sheila :-)

Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer said...

a wonderful post for your daughter! I have 3 sons and a daughter..and I feel the same about each of them!

Melissa Miller said...

Oh Kathy this was so beautifully written.
How lovely is she with such gorgeous blue eyes I might add.

~Happy Birthday Cait!

Have a blessed weekend. ~Melissa :)

Robin said...

I tagged you on my blog! HeHe!

{{HUGS}}

Robin :o)

Unknown said...

Kat, You have been tagged on my blog, if you have a minute, stop by and check it out! Have a great day! Sue

DesignTies said...

WRT my Jackson post... I didn't know you work for a vet, Kathy. I'm sure there are lots of reasons why dogs (and humans!!) shouldn't eat McDonalds -- but one day out of the year is OK, yes??

Actually, he ended up with a double-burger from Burger King. One patty per year :-)

Kelly

The Muse said...

The wonderful blessing of motherhood~we would not trade it for the world, would we? :)

Your sharing of special moments was so heartfelt, i can tell how proud you are...
Happy Birthday wishes to be sure!

Dixie said...

Oh Kathy... they just grow up way too fast don't they... how does time do that?... Caitlin has grown into a beautiful and accomplished young woman... a source of great pride for her entire family....

God Bless... Dixie

ps... Kathy... did you guess... it was your card in my hand at the porch party at French Lique... ;)

xinex said...

Hi Kathy! I just wanna let you know that you've just been tagged
:-)....Christine

Bo said...

Hi Kathy...and please wish your wonderful daughter Caitlin a happy 21st birthday for me! You wrote an excellent story...it was fun to read. I've missed visiting your blog but hopefully after our trip I'll get back into the swing of things. ;-) Bo

Kathysue said...

I know I am late for the party,but I wanted to say Happy Happy Bday Cait!! You are an amazing young woman and you have given your mom so much pride and some good stories to tell on her blog,heehee. Congrats to you also Kat for raising such a wonderful daughter, Love ya Kathysue

Nancy said...

Happy Birthday to Cait, Kathy. I loved reading your birth story. Isn't it funny we can remember like it was yesterday? What a darling little girl she was a such a pretty young woman. Congratulations to you on a job well done. xoxo Nancy