Sharon turns Ten!

"Do you have a name for the baby?", asked the doctors at the OR. "Aaron for boy and Sharon for girl!" was my response. They were amused and minutes later announced, "It is Sharon!"

Hard to believe it has been ten years since that day. Feels like a dream holding my tiny newborn in my hands and worrying at her feeble cry. While the baby next door was loud and clear, baby Sharon's cry was hard to hear. It sure made me worry. Turns out Sharon was perfectly normal and was just waiting to grow up just a little to start her tantrums! :))

Sharon was the sweetest baby ever with lots of drooling and heavy kicking of her tiny feet all the time. Our main concern was keeping Akka (Rachel) away from the new born as Akka didn't hesitate to poke the eyes and say, "baby!" "eyes!" etc. Rachel was hardly 17 months old at that time and was just beginning to learn words and might have thought Sharon was a new toy of some kind.

It was fun watching the babies grow up together. They were mostly dressed alike and soon Sharon caught up to Rachel in size. Many asked if they were twins and my response was, "Almost!". As much as we worried protecting baby from Akka soon we had to protect Akka from baby. As the baby grew up she claimed everything that belonged to Akka as her own and demanded everything Akka would be playing with. Her attention was constantly on Rachel and even before Rachel finished her sentences Sharon would say, "I want that too". She would have no clue what it was. If you ask her specifically what she was asking for, she would answer boldly, "Whatever she said she wants". She was fearless, adamant & a handful at times but at the same time very sweet and irresistible.

Eventually we had to train Rachel to fight for her rights, to put her foot down and to demand like Sharon did as we noticed Sharon was kind of dominating the scene while Rachel got muted in the background. But when Rachel finally started in the same route, we regretted it immediately as it was constant rivalry between the  two. It took a while for them to keep their hands and feet to themselves and to respect individual space.

They have come a long way since then and we all have grown up together. Joshua was an answer to the little girls' prayer for a baby boy. However he was raised by Mom in India so we missed most of his baby days. With our constantly changing consulting jobs and business ideas life got quite busy, couldn't afford vacations or sick days and the like, not much time to stand and stare, pause to smell the roses or linger long to kiss the babies.

In our hurried life we haven't been at our best with our children all the time. True we are becoming better parents each day but we have our regrets that we should have spent quality time with our babies then enjoying them more when they were little. It was wrong on our part to rush them through their baby days, rushing to bed, rushing to wake, rushing thru' bath, rushing thru' meals, rushing thru' fever, cough & cold, rushing out of bottles, rushing into solids, rushing in to potty training and it seemed like we were on the world's fastest express train that never stopped!!

But the babies did fine. They thrived with the little attention they got and blessed us much with love beyond measures. They are the best kids in the whole wide world I would say. I can relax and enjoy them more now that the diaper days are long gone and our career has stabilized by God’s grace. It is such a joy seeing them tease and laugh and have a merry time among themselves. They love each other's company over anybody else and there is never a dull moment at home.

So, coming back to Sharon, she has been my darling little girl in whom I see a lot of "Me". Each and every aspect of her reminds me of "Me". I get to live the "Me" all over again thru' her. Sometimes when I can predict her, she asks, "How did you know that?" I simply say, "Mommies know all!"

Today as our little Sharon turns ten I wish her a Very Happy Birthday and Many Happy Returns! May God bless her very very much!

Sharon blogs too and loves to receive comments. Please check her out at: Sharon Shares! if you have a minute to spare. Thank you!