It's all about me...

Well, not really. But it is. In a way. I guess.

Let me start by telling about my youngest. She is bright, funny, lovely. Let's call her Bird. That's because she eats like one...3-5 times her weight daily. But she is skinny. And she is small. Compact is the way she prefers to be referred to. Environmentally friendly. NEVER petite.

As her life has progressed, I dealt with various issues as they occurred. Urinary tract infections when she was four and five years old? Unusual, yes. Kidney ultrasound showed no problems, though. Then there were the leg pains. They were caused by flat feet. Flat feet, I'm told, don't generally cause problems. They do for Bird, though. There was the immaturity and drawing on herself and her almost obsessive attention to some things (like her hair...no poof!!!). Some things had to be arranged just so but she was so disorganized! And the fears...Santa was a big one. She asked for presents to be left on the porch. She didn't want a big fat man in a red suit coming in when we were all asleep.

Then, we had the fear of death. That was a rough one.

A lot was explained when we discovered she had ADHD. Medication helped immeasurably.

And then there are the glasses (thick glasses and OMG whoever would have thought that glasses for a kid could cost $500 and that is with single vision lenses and no polarization or whatever it is called) and mild scoliosis.

By the time she was 13, I felt like I was always waiting on the other shoe to drop. I just tried to enjoy her as she was, encourage her, love her, help her to deal with everything with a good attitude and a smile on her face.

But shoes, they do drop...