Fearless 15!

Today, Dani turns 15 years old. My second-born daughter who brings immense joy to us all. Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

She enjoys baking and always bakes her own cake

The weekend Dani was born it poured rain the whole time. I was going in to be induced because an ultrasound showed I had low fluid. On that Saturday, I ran around getting last things done with Sarah while Craig worked in the produce department at Target. In and out of the car — rain, rain and more rain. We drove in the rain to Saturday evening Mass — rain. We dropped Sarah off at her grandmother’s house — rain. Even as we checked into the hospital and all night long, all anyone could say was how much rain we were getting.

I remember fondly my birth experience with Dani. It was so different from Sarah (I had switched doctors). I remember the nurses were incredible helping me prepare overnight while contractions got started. My water broke around 8, and my doctor probably came to the hospital rather directly after Mass (at least I remember he looked like he may have) and checked on me only to see that it was time to have a baby! I started to push and he realized I wouldn’t be pushing all that long and he better get his scrubs on! Ha! All in all, I pushed twice and out she came with a tint of red in her hair and screaming. I knew this one would be different in the very first seconds of her life.

I never knew if Dani was simply a well-adjusted newborn or if Craig and I really had gotten the hang of this parenting thing. Dani was sleeping through the night really quickly and was an overall happy baby. We learned with Helen that it was probably just that Dani had a temperament that got used to being a baby outside the womb really quickly. 🙂

Dani has grown into one of the kindest souls. She enjoys performing and looks for ways to bring others joy. She is incredibly close with her siblings. She’s been a little later in life to find a really strong friend or two outside of her siblings, but that’s okay — she comes by it honestly, I wasn’t quick to make friends outside of family, either.

I’m excited to watch her high school years unfold — they’ve had a great start with tennis and she found out today she was cast in the fall musical!

So, happy birthday to my sweet-tempered, kind-hearted baby girl, Dani. She’s one bright, shiny star!