Eighteen Years Ago Today

I was experiencing my first home birth.  Rebekah Jane was ushered into this world in the privacy of my bedroom.  I loved the experience, and I love my little girl.

Rebekah had a fine covering of blond hair unlike any of my babies to date - it was a soft blonde, not the near white of my other "dutch" babies.  And she had a nice amount of it too!  When she was born she was mad at the world.  The midwife commented on her little attitude even.  But she was a very good baby...most of the time.  Very early I wrote in her baby book that poem about the little girl with the curl...and it was very true.  She was such a good baby, content to do whatever I set her up to do whether it was hanging out in her highchair or sitting on a blanket playing with her toys.  She rarely complained.  She was adorable chubby as a baby, but that didn't last long.  She was probably our chubbiest baby and resisted any attempts at a bottle of baby food until she was over a year old.

Rebekah's First Birthday!

All dolled up for a wedding!

She was my latest walker, as she waited to walk until she could do it perfectly.  She spent a long time perfecting her fall before she was willing to take those first steps.  Just after learning to walk, she fell off our coach and her arm was broken.  She didn't let it keep her down for long though.  She was walking again in no time.

She was a beautiful child - lovely hair and a face that had the look of a princess in the making.  She was very loving and showed signs of being an artist at a very early age.  She was very creative, even in the areas of mischief!  I have lots of funny stories about the adventures of this little girl, who we lovingly called "Becka Baby" until the nick name was no longer appropriate.

She was quite the little leader.  She loved to come up with creative ideas and get the other kids, especially Rachel, involved with her fun play.  They would spend hours and hours playing house or riding bikes or trying to build forts in our woods.

Rebekah has grown into a tall, graceful young lady.  She still has remnants of her childhood showing up here and there - she loves to goof off and loves taking time to play with girls much younger than herself.

Her favorite activities have always been drawing and  creating things.  Her jewelry is amazingly original.  Her drawing covers many different media, but she excels at caricatures, cartoon and anime!

She loves to create her own style of clothes. True to her artist's nature, many of her clothing choices have flair!  Bright colors, feather accents and a fedora hat are just a sampling.

She is really good with her younger brothers and sisters, and is always ready to give her dad a hug when he comes home from work.  She has made rag dolls for Esther, which Esther loves more than anything.  She also makes little cloth dolls that look like ginger bread people too!

One of her other talents is face painting, but it doesn't stop there.  She's been known to paint hands, feet, ankles, shoulders, biceps   Her temporary tattoos are amazing!

She also has quite the sense of humor.  She can really hit the nail on the head, especially with puns.  She loves to laugh  and be a little goofy - she's good for our family!

Although she's turning eighteen, and has become a beautiful young woman, she still has the heart of a child - innocent and loving.  She wants to grow up, but all in good time, my dear, all in good time!

This is the first of what I hope to be Birthday Highlights - I'm going to make a blog post dedicated to each child, talking about their childhood, character and interests.  I hope you enjoyed it.