48 Months.
by Ashley Weeks Cart
My darling darling Addison,
Happy happy 4th birthday to you! I can’t even believe that I am saying those words. How on earth is it possible that you’ve been in our lives four whole years – and yet, how is it possible that it’s been so few? I feel like you and I have always been a pair – a bold, dancey, blonde duo that takes on the world with excessive layering and the wiggles.
You are one of my favorite people in the entire Universe. You are so kind and thoughtful and sensitive, even at just 48 months of life. You’re so very in tune with people’s emotions, empathetic to the core, expressing sorrow when I shed a tear, offering aid when your sister is frustrated, giggling righteously when your daddy cracks a smile. This trait is so very admirable and dear. You feel things deeply, and while that will at times feel debilitating and overwhelming, it will make you an amazing friend, partner, sister and daughter. You already are.
I missed your tree house birthday party in South Carolina due to some truly outrageous issues with the airline, and headed back home to the farm completely devastated that I would not be by your side as you blew out your fourth birthday candles. I awoke at 5am the next day, determined to be with you on your actual birthday, our BIRTH DAY, even if I’d missed the festivities. I needed to be with my eldest daughter, the person who truly made me a mother. I needed to be with you as you turned four, because no matter how many numbers are attached to your existence, you will always be my baby, and I will always need you more than you could ever possibly need me.
Loving you is effortless.
Happiest of birthdays, Sunny girl.
I love you to the moon and front.
143 Mama
