Twelve years ago

Today was the twelfth anniversary of the last time I gave birth.  In other words, my daughter’s twelfth birthday.  Back then, it was about me.  Now, it’s all about her.  (Isn’t that the story of motherhood?  At this point, nothing is about me; everything is about the kids.)

Twelve years ago, my labor started unexpectedly.  Sort of.  After all, I was nine months pregnant and three days away from my due date.  Somehow, though, I had convinced myself that I was going to have the baby on the 10th of September since that was a week after the beginning of school.  She was due on September 5.

My twins were starting fourth grade on September 3rd, the day after Labor Day.  See?  I had a scheduling conflict.

But it was Labor Day and labor I did.  She was born in a hurry after six mostly ignored and denied hours of labor.  (I sent my husband to the community pool with our three sons and told him I just needed to rest to make the contractions stop.  I believed in my super powers,  I guess.)  When the midwife came, I joked that I changed my mind and didn’t want to give birth but I did two hours after she arrived.  (And ten minutes before my husband returned home.)

Today, my baby girl went to sixth grade.  She started school last week.  For the first time since we moved here just over three years ago, she is attending a “real” school rather than doing school at home.  She complains about school and wishes summer would last forever, but she really wanted to attend a school and this is the perfect school for her.   I think she likes it a lot.  She comes home with a lot of things to say about her day and the other kids.

For the first time in ten years, I am not supervising any of my kids while they do school at home through a virtual/online public school.  You might think I’d feel nostalgic but mostly I feel like I just climbed a sheer cliff while clinging to it with my toes and fingertips.  I’m exhausted.  I can’t believe I didn’t plummet to my death.

So I rejoice.  My work here is not done but at least someone else is directly responsible for educating my last child.

Here’s how we celebrated her birthday:

Birthday shopping (clothes, of course, from Tilly’s)
Birthday lunch (Rubio’s)
Birthday pedicure
Birthday party at our good friends’ home where we they grilled burgers and we played Corn-hole and badmitton
Birthday cupcakes made with chocolate ganache
Square and diamond-shaped birthday balloons
Gifts (including and not limited to a new cell phone)