{"id":241,"date":"2007-04-09T06:27:08","date_gmt":"2007-04-09T14:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/09\/happy-4th-birthday-emma-gracie\/"},"modified":"2007-04-09T06:27:08","modified_gmt":"2007-04-09T14:27:08","slug":"happy-4th-birthday-emma-gracie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/?p=241","title":{"rendered":"Happy 4th Birthday, Emma Gracie."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Emma Grace,<\/p>\n<p>At this moment, four years ago I was working through some pretty good-sized contractions, thanking God that despite some pre-term labor scares, we had managed to keep you in your little cocoon until you had reached 38 weeks. I was also wondering if it was possible to keep you in for another 38 weeks.<\/p>\n<p>I was so scared.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_born.jpg\" title=\"em_born.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_born.jpg\" title=\"em_born.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_born.jpg\" alt=\"em_born.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I was just so unconvinced that I was ready to be a mommy. I was so worried that I wouldn&#8217;t know what to do or what to say or how to raise you into a smart, productive member of society.<\/p>\n<p>And four years later, even after having practice with you, and now your sister, too&#8230;I still don&#8217;t know what the heck I&#8217;m doing. I&#8217;m still scared. There are many days that I&#8217;m not sure I can be a good mommy. And I&#8217;m constantly questioning my ability to challenge you and nurture you into an upstanding young lady.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_face.jpg\" title=\"em_face.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_face.jpg\" title=\"em_face.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_face.jpg\" alt=\"em_face.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">But I do know one thing &#8211; I wouldn&#8217;t trade one moment of it for anything. You have given your Daddy and I so much happiness and joy, we simply cannot imagine life without you. You have also made me a more patient person (well, at least a little more than I used to be). You have helped me to stop and experience the little things in life, the important things. And you have challenged me to be the best mommy I can be.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_kiss.jpg\" title=\"em_kiss.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_kiss.jpg\" title=\"em_kiss.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_kiss.jpg\" alt=\"em_kiss.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">As I watch you grow into a charming, funny and sweet little girl I can&#8217;t help but feel so proud that you are my daughter. And with your new house, your new school, and your new friends, I just know you are going to have your best year yet.  I am so happy to be here to experience it along with you.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_laugh.jpg\" title=\"em_laugh.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_laugh.jpg\" title=\"em_laugh.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/em_laugh.jpg\" alt=\"em_laugh.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Happy Birthday Sweet Gracie.<br \/>\nI love you,<br \/>\nMommy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Emma Grace, At this moment, four years ago I was working through some pretty good-sized contractions, thanking God that despite some pre-term labor scares, we had managed to keep you in your little cocoon until you had reached 38 &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/?p=241\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/psMOS-3T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}