Teenager #2

Today is Madison's 13th birthday. We are now the proud parents of two...count them two teenagers. In honor of this wonderful occasion I am going to share my most cherished memory of my life with my incredible daughter.

Madison is my bonus baby...she is the child that I got through marrying Brent. When he and I got together Madison and Mikey were 2 years and 4/5months old respectively. Our family blended nicely together, but my deepest desire was to let my relationship with Maddy chart its own course. I did not want to push my presence as a mother figure on to her. So, to that end, I was Shannon or Mommy Shannon for a long time.

Until one wondrous winter night when our whole famliy was in Loveland, Colorado visiting one of the sets of grandparents. We had all decided to take the kids to see the movie Rugrats in Paris. By this time Madison was 5. In this movie one of the characters, Chucky, gets a new mom. His mom had died and his dad remarried. It was a cute movie, but up until the ride home it was just that...a movie.

But then, we went home. On the ride home, out of the clear blue, Madison says to me, "I think that I am going to start calling you mom now." I must tell you that my eyes welled up (as they are right now even thinking about that moment), and I turned around and looked at her big beautiful eyes and she said, "Well, Chucky got a new mom and he called her mom. So I figured it would be okay for me to call you mom too." It was just a simple moment for her. Something that made sense in her little girl mind because at that age Rugrats make everything make sense. But for me, that moment, that will forever be my moment with her. My most special moment. And as we celebrate her life today, I like to remember the moment when she changed mine forever. Happy Birthday, Madison Alise.