Sometimes you get the feeling that you’re getting old when you find yourself saying to your kids things like, “Ten years ago, there was no Facebook, YouTube, or Blackberry. ‘Google’ wasn’t a verb. We were excited to use 2-megapixel digital cameras [see photo at right]. Texting was pretty new. And certainly, no one was blogging, vlogging, or tweeting.”
When I look back at my life over the past ten years, I realise that the greatest and best changes were the personal ones. And one thing that has always kept me young, feeling alive, and loving life, is my daughter. She’s fun, funny, generous, helpful, kind, creative, intelligent, and a generally good human being. She’s really easygoing and trouble-free—the kind of kid whom you have to convince to have a birthday party and birthday presents and have dessert and treats. She’s the type of child who would make any parent say, “If I had to choose someone to introduce me to the tough job of parenting, I’d choose that one.”
She’s made my first 10 years of parenthood easy, memorable, and an absolute joy.
Happy birthday, baby girl.