A celebration

I am so blessed to have a beautiful, healthy girl.  And this weekend we celebrated her 4th birthday.

As I sat down to write this blog entry, I realized how different the 4th birthday parties were for Dan and for Shelby.

First, there is the obvious: winter and summer.  And the other obvious: boy and girl.  These don't bother me.

The not so obvious things are what made me pause while writing.  A request for toys made for 2 year olds vs. toys made for 4 year olds.

And 4 was the last birthday Dan had.  We didn't know it at the time, though.  His birthday always felt rushed - wedged between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and usually the same weekend as the firehouse kids Christmas party where we would get Santa pictures every year.

Shelby keeps me so busy, I usually don't have time to dwell on the differences between them.  I do know that some of what we do is a reaction to losing Dan so early, and some things we were never able to do for and with him.

So we celebrate. We celebrate 4 wonderful years. We celebrate life. We celebrate a healthy, beautiful princess.