Happy Birthday My Makenna

Today is Makenna’s 3^rd Birthday. I can’t believe it’s only been three years since she joined our family. In so many ways her and Hailey are twins, I often expect that they are the same age. Yet, in every other possible way she is completely different. Hailey is delicate, Makenna is tough. Hailey is gentle, Makenna is fierce. Anthony and Makenna are much more alike in personality yet they too have vast differences. Anthony loves order, rules to follow and clear instructions. Makenna relishes in freedom, bucks any rules set before her and only follows her own instructions.

The day she was born was just a small indicator of the person she is still becoming. She is fiercly independent, strong and the type of person that marches to the music in her own head. Despite the fact that she was my 3^rd delivery, she refused to come on her due date, or the day after, or even the day after that. I ended up having to be induced into labor which is rare for a 3^rd. After waiting thru the induction all night, just at the point the Dr. was considering C-section, Makenna decided it was her time. She entered the world in a delivery that defied convention (no need for details here), and broke long standing rules.  

Brad and I tried to have another baby for over 7 years before we were blessed with Hailey. We were content and resigned that Anthony was going to be our only, then, Hailey danced her way into our life. Considering we had 7 years between Anthony and Hailey, we didn’t rush to get into any type of birth control. I was still nursing Hailey and we hadn’t even decided if we were going to try for a 3^rd child, ever, when I found out I was pregnant with Makenna. To say we were shocked is an understatement. To say we’ve been blessed is an understatement of equally epic proportions.

Makenna makes us laugh every day. Every day she makes me pull my hair out and wish for my own time-outs. She is so opposite of Hailey yet they are so close (only 17 months between them) that it’s a daily adventure to watch her. She never reacts the way you expect, she never listens when you think she should but can be the most astute individual when you’re not paying attention to her. She will tackle you with her hugs, grabs your face to smoosh a kiss into you and never goes to bed with out at least 3 hugs. She loves her brother and sister and can’t stand to be away from either of them. She plays with Hailey all day long, pretending to be a puppy, a baby or even the momma. She sings, dances and laughs at the most random times. She demands Anthony tell her good-bye every morning before school and waits by the door when she knows he’s coming home. She is always getting into his legos, toys and anything else that belongs to him. She races outside the moment he does just so she can be with him. It was Anthony who actually named her. On the night we were driving home from telling our family we were pregnant again, we were discussing names. He said: "Can we name her Makenna? I knew a girl at Daycare that was younger than me, she was scared so I use to hold her hand and walk her in every day. She was really pretty and nice." 

Truly, Makenna is her own individual. She is a free spirit who I’m sure will only give me hell in her teens, rebel against the norm all her life and will, God willing, lay on her death bed an old withered lady saying – “Damn, what a ride!” I know she will teach all of us the importance of timing, or lack there-of, and will, her entire life, as in her birth, be fashionably late, creating a sea of smiles as she enters.