Hey 19!

At a debate last fall.

Today is my "big boy" Cam's 19th birthday. As I probably say in every year's birthday post, I cannot even fathom how 19 years have gone by so quickly. I'm so proud of him and his bright prospects for the future!!

Yesterday my coworkers and I were chatting about how we can remember every detail leading up to the days before and after the births of our kids (in particular, Lynne's daughter Maggie was born the day before Cam, same year). I don't think kids understand how deeply their births affect their mothers, and probably won't understand it until they have children.

Every year I relive the days before Cam was born; how he was 2 1/2 weeks early (his original due date being they awesomely numerically cool 3/9/93), the events of the day before (I left work not knowing if I'd be back the next day; Mark had bowling that Wednesday night; my friend Heather called and we chatted for a while), my water breaking at 2am, Mark having to go into work in the middle of the night to "deliver" the software that was due the next day; then us heading to the hospital for a good day's work (my labor started in earnest at 9am and Cam was born - after much trouble which ended in a vacuum extraction - at 5pm). Too much detail? See, I told you that I relive it every year.

This will be me in 20 years:

Because I think I will relive that wonderful day until I take my last breath!

Happy Birthday, Cameron! (I guess you weren't a girl after all!)