My Little One Became A Teen Yesterday

My little girl turned 13 yesterday.  It seems like just yesterday she was a toddler running around and her biggest concern was learning to tie her shoes.  Now she is 13 and has her friends and a much busier schedule.  Luckily her schedule was empty last night so we had a nice dinner followed by cake and ice cream.

I'm normally not one to look back too much, unless it's to remind me how lucky I am to have today.  And her birthday is no different.  She is my miracle baby.  We had a serious scare 10 hours after she was born when she choked and her lungs quit working properly.  She was transferred to the local children's hospital and was in neonatal ICU for 13 days.  They gave her what was an experimental therapy at the time, nitric oxide to help oxygen adhere to her blood as it circulated to get oxygen to her organs.  Because she had been without oxygen to her organs for an undetermined amount of time she had to undergo testing until was 3 to see if her hearing or development would be affected.  The fact that she is now perfectly healthy, except for asthma is just amazing to me.

At the hospital they handed me papers to name her and I kind of threw them to the side as I was more worried about getting out of there to go to the children's hospital.  A nurse then explained if things went bad she needed a name.  I had chosen Dakota as my boy name and had not settled on a girl name yet.  I just threw down the name Dakota and a middle name based on my late father's name and gave them the papers.  That is how she got the name Dakota, but it suits her and she likes it so all turned out well.

Next weekend we will be going skiing to celebrate her birthday and I will enjoy every minute I spend face down in the snow because I know as she gets older it will get harder and harder for me to get the time with her that I have become accustomed to. 

If you have little ones at home enjoy every minute because they grow up so fast.