You say it’s your (16th) birthday….
August 19, 2014 Leave a comment
Yep, someone is 16 today! Considering I just turned 29 (okay, again), it seems nearly impossible, but somehow C has gone from a wee one to…well, see for yourself…
The above photo was taken by our good friend, Janet. Ignore my wacky hair and feast your eyes on baby Cait.
At a whopping 5 days (me thinks) old! Grandma Judy was in town and snapped this photo while we were hanging by the pool (Dad was at training in West Virginia).
This was either taken by Janet or her husband, Jack, also a much better photographer than I can hope to be. Here is our first Christmas card photo with C. Maggie, our bassetdor, clearly felt this whole photo thing was old hat.
Ah…here we are at the first birthday, with C delicately eating what was (of course) her first bite of cake and ice cream ever (not). She also had an amazing decorated-by-hand Winnie the Pooh cake courtesy of Auntie Shannon. Sadly, I don't have a photo handy (must reorganize photos), but it was almost too beautiful to eat….almost.
Here we have Christmas 1999! Anyone noticing a trend with the cards? To answer the obvious question, yes, Maggie posed, and no, she did not mind the get-ups. I must find the photo of her in her bathrobe (monogrammed, of course).
Let's fast-forward a bit…otherwise, we could be here for days (not that there is anything wrong with that!). Here we have C enjoying the beautiful sands of Curacao in November 2002. We had moved to "Caracalus" three months prior so Peter could work in the "Ombassy" and managed to take a quick trip over Thanksgiving. While most folks were there for the diving, we were just thrilled to have a quiet beach to ourselves for a few days.
Summer of 2001. At almost 3 years of age, C is enjoying a visit back to the States for R&R. We were visiting Grandma Judy and on this day, walking around Main Street in Yardley. Such a lovely little town for visiting.
Here we are at a little petting zoo just outside of Caracas. We were headed back to the States within a few weeks of this photo in order for me to give birth to Kelsey. C was very much enjoying the summery weather before we had to head back to near freezing temps for a while.
Just like that…C is a big sister to wee nugget, Kelsey, born on March 22. We had an adventurous medical evacuation that I won't detail here, but suffice it to say, we were very glad to be able to finally return to Caracas as a family in late May of 2002.
And she just keeps growing up…we are now in the spring of 2003. We've been back in the DC area since early August 2002. This photo is courtesy of Grandma Judy, who visited frequently while Dad was jet-setting around the world with VIPs and such.
Another photo by Grandma Judy at C's 5th birthday, AKA, the obligatory Chuck E. Cheese party. Peter was traveling again, and, hey, if it makes life easier and the kids like it?
Then before we knew it, she was 6 and starting first grade, and riding the bus. Oh, the wails we heard from Kelsey daily when C left. There is no fury like that of a 2 year old who does not get to ride the big yellow school bus…
Less than a month later, she was a flower girl in Auntie Shannon's wedding on the beach. I remember thinking that I couldn't believe she was already 6….
By the following June, we were living in Iceland. Just a wee bit of a change, but by then C was a bit used to the moving and adjusted quickly to life in Reyjavik.
Learning how to ride Icelandic horses in the snow….Fall 2005.
The spring of 2006 found us all traveling to Germany with Peter. He had a conference, and we had a great time touring! Kelsey and I went off to investigate castles and the Zugspitz, while C learned how to ski at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Pretty cool spring break, if I do say so myself.
C sang in an Icelandic girls' choir in the fall of 2006. In the above photo she is ready for the Christmas concert. One of the guests? The president of Iceland!
Fall of 2007 and her fascination with Laura Ingalls Wilder is parlayed into a project. The arm? She forgot to wear her inniskór (inside shoes) one day in school and while giving her sister a piggyback ride, bent over to pick up a coat and two broken bones in her left arm later….
Baby's first glacier? Lots of changes over the year and C is now a big sister times two. Wee Nicholas Quinn made his way into the world on February 20, 2002 (February 19 for those in the States). This photo was taken our anniversary weekend of 2008, just a month before we were slated to move to….
Recognize it? If you've been to Muir Woods, it would look a bit familiar. Here is C at nearly 10 years old and now living in her 5th home (not counting the wide variety of Residence Inns that we've called home) just outside of San Francisco, CA.
2009 had us traveling everywhere in California, from San Diego to Yosemite. One of the most exciting trips, though, was a mom and daughter venture back to MD & VA for Auntie Shannon's baby shower.
April of 2010 and our time in California is drawing to a close. What better way to spend it than having lunch at a tea room and then catching a performance of Wicked?
2011 found C doing all sorts of crazy things like turning 13…a teen, at long last! Which means that things like high school couldn't be too far away….
2012 found a few more changes headed our way. We'd learned that we would be moving to Nicaragua (yea!), however, it would only be after Peter spent a year in Kabul. C received a little end of 8th grade gift in the form of a trip to Iceland for a week to visit old friends and old haunts.
2013 and so many changes, yet as usual she handled them with grace. From Peter's return from Kabul, the move to Managua, a new neighborhood, school, friends, language…and perhaps the best: a wee kitten named Kai adopted a few months into our tour.
And now…
Now we have nearly 16…
Fun…
Yep, the artistic thing again…maybe it's just because I'm her mom, but her talent just stuns me. Our plane to Chicago (this summer) was delayed, so I sent work-related emails and played words with friends…she sketched for hours.
The above photo was taken during our mom and daughter trip to Chicago. Given that we knew a license and a car were not necessarily going to happen for this birthday (an issue with a lot of FS kids), we figured a fun trip would be the next best thing. C and I spent 4 days in Chicago and she was able to meet up with a friend from Managua to attend a couple of Starkids Shows (and they met Joey Richter!). Okay, I didn't really know who he was before that night, but it was a Very Big Deal and I respect that.
It's now 12:18 a.m. MGA time and technically her birthday. Of course, I'm thinking until it's 9:34 a.m. (11:34 a.m. VA time) she is not *quite* 16. It's her birthday, though, right? So, it's time to say…
Happy birthday, C. Happy birthday to my firstborn artistic moves-every-few-years and likes it. You've had a crazy life, but you've adapted with grace in a way I still cannot match. We love you so very much, Little C. Happy, Happy 16th Birthday!
