Happy Birthday

20 years ago today I gave birth to the sweetest, calmest, cutest baby. Michelle Elyse joined our family after 5 hours of labor. She weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and hardly had any hair. Labor with her was by far my easiest. I had contractions that were not super painful, and did not let the doctor break my bag of water. After walking around, visiting with my nurse friends, I did finally have a few strong contractions. At this point I asked my nurse to check me and I was just about ready to start pushing. My bag broke the contraction before she delivered and my doctor did not make the delivery. But I didn't care for I had this sweet little baby to hold.

She slept alot and was not real needy (which was a good thing because her 17 month old sister was not taking to kindly to having a baby around the house...and she was the needy one at that time!) Michelle was a happy baby. She slept, ate and pretty much just took in her surroundings.

Love the toothless smile here. She did finally grow those teeth though ~ and required years of orthodontic work ~ probably because she was a thumb sucker. But I didn't care ~ she was content.
I should have known that she was going to grow up to be an animal lover. She was always holding them and playing with them - even as a young child. Today she has two dogs, a cat, two fish and two turtles. Yet she constantly asks to bring something else home!

She grew up in to a fine young woman. She is smart, has always done well in school and got accepted in to almost every college that she applied to. She is currently attended Cal State Long Beach where she is majoring in Kinesiology. She is sporty, yet girly all at the same time. She played soccer growing up and ran track and field in high school as well. She still loves to work out and take her dogs on hikes in the canyon. Guess that is why she is in such good shape.

She has many friends ~ some that she has had since kindergarten and she has a heart for our world and the people of our world. She loves to travel. I often wonder if she will join the peace corps one day. Of course I think she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.She also loves photography. She has two SLR camera's but received this point and shoot for her birthday today. She even has her own photography website called, of all things, Michelle Elyse photography. I keep telling her to major in photography but I think for now it is just a hobby. She does do photo shoots on the side if you are interested.....Happy Birthday dear daughter of mine! You have brought so much joy in to my life - and a little frustration as you are late for everything - guess that is your kickback nature! I hope you have a fun birthday with many more to come!!

Love you,

Mom