Two Today!

So it's my daughter's birthday today.  And I have been challenged by my wife to write about that rather than some other random fodder circulating my mind.  And because it really matters to me, here goes..

Firstly, I'm just blown away by a whole person.  It's amazing that she is.  That we (well my wife) has given birth to another whole human being.  Not a mini-person, or a sub-person or a second-generation person.  An original, genuine, state of the art, complete and fully spec'd human being.  As valid, important, valued and amazing as anyone.  Wow, reproduction rocks!

Secondly, she is the ultimate hero.  I've discovered that children are.  Because heroes change, they are transformed.  That's what they do, it's their thing.  And unlike "adults", children actually expect this as part of basic existence.  My daughter develops.  In every dimension and direction, she is constantly on a forward trajectory.  It's like her life is made of just two components; love (of us, friends, family, the cat), and "education"; she just wants to learn and do new things.  She wants to say more words and better, communicate more things, express herself more clearly, jump higher and further with less hand-holding, swing higher, climb harder, sing more of the words, dance more groovy moves, do more stuff!!

And as we were discussing today, she has accomplished more in the last year than us by a good order of magnitude or two, and she will again next year.  Which of course is good and right.  But why do we ever stop expecting to change?  I'm sure that we all can (and should) keep on getting better, but the dimensions in which we grow should be deeper.

So here's to my beautiful girly.  A true heroine.  And here's my commitment to expect to change myself.  I can already use a potty, and I can already climb the stairs, and I've already got a little sister, but I'm sure there's room for some major growth in this particular child.

I thank God for my beautiful family and His love which I cannot understand.