Charlotte

I stopped and gazed at Charlotte recently. When a child gets older the gazing comes and goes more infrequently than when they are a soft nursing newborn, or when they pitter-pat across the floor as a toddler.  A rosy cheeked drooler with sweet chunky baby feet who gives sloppy baby kisses elicits a googly-eyed mother. An inquisitive four or five year old elicits a spark of jaw dropping wonder and magic. Then you blink and they are teenagers.  

 In a lush green yard she played with kids of all ages and ran around. They tossed a mini football around. She looked so mature and refined. Because she is. Her siblings swarmed her, especially one year old Everett. He ran to her, she swooped him up. 

She's getting unmistakably older and she looks more like a young woman than a girl. I took in the sight like I took in her newborn body swaddled in a blanket 15 years ago. This moment, I thought to myself, I want to remember it. Without trying I flashed forward in my head 10 years into the future. It was the same image that was currently in front of me. Young woman Charlotte, running around with kids, cute as a button, happy, glowing, smiling. The world all hers. As I stood in this yard I felt like it's very much like the backyard of her future; beautiful, serene, safe, cozy, colorful...with children, and happiness and love. This is my wish for my beautiful girl: all of those feelings. And maybe the kids in my vision are hers, maybe not. But the beauty and happiness and kindness she exudes can only lead to a beautiful life and I'm really blessed that I'm a part of it. As she ran and laughed and lived in the present I thought to myself; this is her future.