A Rough Road Begins to Smooth Out...

I probably set my oldest daughter, Ash, up for a bit of a rough road. She was my first born and I did most things for her.


Ash at one day old in the NICU

By the time her little sister came around and I had to get three of us out of the house, it was just easier to do everything for her instead of let her do it herself. I tied her shoes, zipped her pants, buttoned her jacket and many other things to get us on our way. As she got older, the things that I did for her changed but I was still doing things that she should've been doing on her own.

She is about to turn 10 in a few months and just over the past two weeks I have noticed a change in her. She is starting to return the favor without me asking.

Last week as we scrambled to get ready for school and catch the bus, Ash disappeared downstairs. To be honest, I thought I would find her doing something totally unrelated to getting ready for school. When I got downstairs, I found her in the kitchen zipping up her sister's lunch box. She said she overheard me say that I forgot to make their lunches so she went down to take care of it for me. She packed each of them an ice pack, drink, apple, cheese & crackers and a cookie for dessert.

Later in the week, she cleaned her room before a play date without the usual threat of - "If you don't clean your room, Friend can't come over!!". She even cleaned it up after her friend left and did an amazing job.

Sunday, after her sister's basketball game, she told me that she would make their lunches. She washed off strawberries and cut them with a butter knife, she made wraps with turkey and colby jack cheese with a fancy toothpick to hold it all together and best of all...she cleaned it all up.

This girl will always be my baby...
no matter how old

I know this may not seem like much to many who read this but to me this is a step in the right direction. It fills my heart with pride that she is making these steps on her own and that she has actually been paying attention to what I have been doing over the last nine years of her life. It also breaks my heart because I know that sooner rather than later she will need me less and less in the everyday aspects of her life. The road is definitely beginning to smooth out.