It's an interesting world that we live in, one where we can connect with people all over the world, for any number of reasons. More then 4 years ago I chose to connect with a group of women all who were expecting to bring new life into the world in the winter of 2007. One of these ladies has become one of my closest friends and co-founder of this site, while many of the others are still part of my daily dialogue in one form of communication or another, from facebook to IM to text. Never was the significance of this more apparent then it has been over the last few weeks and for me the last few days, as so many of us sent our first born babies, off into the world without us for the first time.
I remember so distinctly the early days on our due date club where we anxiously anticipated those first movements inside our bellies, and then our anticipation shifted to the moment we would find out who this little person might be a boy or a girl, and even more anxiously the anticipation heightened as we yearned to meet our little people, and then one by one they were here!
After that most of it is a blur, milestone after milestone anticipated, documented and gone in a flash.
On Tuesday morning, I found myself yearning to go backwards in a way I had never felt before. Many times in the last few months I have wished for a pause button, something to stop the time from passing so I could hold onto to my baby, my first born baby, just a moment longer. But status update, after status I realized time wasn't going to wait for me or anyone else. So reluctantly I added my baby's biggest milestone yet, to the cyberspace dialogue, closed my computer and held her tight.
In true Chloë fashion, wanting to make sure I knew she was alright she flashed me a smile and a quick thumbs up before she set off to be a part of the bigger world without me. It might be my imagination but I am quite certain she came home, taller, smarter, funnier, older, and more mature! But what I am equally certain that I didn't imagine, was the excitement on her face when she told me about her teacher, her new friends, her desk, and the water fountain in the hall. And the bedtime hug that lasted a little longer then usual.
