Becoming Mommy

I remember being as young as five years old playing 'house' in my basement and carrying my Cabbage Patch Doll on my hip.  I adored my own mother (and of course still do), and fell in love with the idea that one day someone would look up to me the way I did to her.  I can still remember a song I used to play for her on my tape player where the main chorus sang, "When I grow up I want to be like Mommy..." She was like Wonder Woman or She-Ra...beautiful and strong.  Imaginary play became a time where I could transform myself to be more like her.
As I grew into my teenage years, and became increasingly more boy crazy, I started thinking about what my life would be like when I had my own family.  I would close my eyes and paint a picture of the man I would fall in love with, our wedding day, and what our children would look like.  I remember saying to myself, "I wonder where my future husband is right now..." Who would have thought that he would be in the next town over and at the same school.
Flashing forward to February....I am with the man I am spending the rest of life with, we had a beautiful wedding in July 2009, and we are about to embark on parenthood.  For the past 10 months we knew this day would come. In the final months leading up to the birth of our first child, we would peek into the empty nursery, or the bassinet by our bed, and joke that our days alone together were numbered. Then at 1:07 PM on February 25th she was born.
I had known for quite some time that if we had a baby girl I would name her Lyla (and that was not up for negotiation). Ironically Lyla means 'dark haired beauty' and that is exactly what she is.  When she came into this world and was plopped onto my belly...I thought to myself, "Wow, I can't believe that I just gave birth."  Followed by, "She is mine. I am her Mommy."