Sixteen Candles

Happy birthday to my cousin, Erin!

You're like a combination of the daughter I've yet to have and the little sister I never wanted. ; ) It really does seem like only yesterday that you were the toddler with chubby legs and a peach-fuzz face who made everyone laugh. The stories we've told about you from that time could fill a book. The NYE we all watched "Home Alone" and you were so concerned for little Macaulay Culkin... you went around to everyone in the room asking "Where he mommy? Where he daddy? Where they goooin'?"... those are the types of moments that make people's lives.

Damn, I knew this was gonna make me cry.

I remember trying to teach you stuff when we played in the pool. Surface tension. Taxonomy... Yeah, you were three at the time, but you humored me. Little did you (or I) know that it would all come back to you more than a decade later on your science tests. ; )

Yep, that little girl who loved "rasblerry" ice cream and who once announced "My hiney itches. I have to 'fratch it right now!" is now a beautiful young lady with the world at her fingertips.

My only regret is that my mother's not here to see you today, or to see all the other wonderful things that await you in life. She loved kids, and worked with them all of her life. YOU were her favorite. You were the closest thing she got to a grandchild while she was living. You meant so much to her, and now, more than ever, that means so much to me. YOU mean so much to me.

I want you to know that I'll be there for you, whatever you need. I've got your back. That promise may not mean a lot to you on your sixteenth birthday, but when you're twenty-six, or forty-six, or sixty-six, you might see it differently.

You've got a great head on your shoulders. Use it. Make good choices for yourself. Life's a long song. May yours be filled with the types of moments with which you've filled ours.

We love you.