Last, both in order of birth and in order of birth day, is Madeleine!

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Give me an M!

Twenty-one years ago at this very moment, we were sitting in the kitchen having dinner and I was in labor. My mom and Joe stopped in, having just returned from a few days away, and I told Mum that when we finished up with dinner, I'd be packing my bags. She couldn't believe that I was so calm and cool about it all. I was probably eating potato salad (with egg) from the Piggly Wiggly, one of the only things that appealed to me at all during this pregnancy. We won't even talk about the first trimester... well, okay, we will... I remember going to the grocery store at lunchtime and just wandering the aisles, hoping that something, ANYthing would look good enough to eat; I'd usually return with a bag of ginger snaps.

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Give me an A!

This morning, when I posted about Maddy's birthday on Facebook, she wrote: Thanks for fightin' for me 21 years ago. ;)  More than her birth story, I believe Maddy likes to hear more about conception... that I really wanted to have a third child (I'd have gone up to six or so) but her dad (10 years my senior) wasn't as excited.

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Give me a D!

And he is correct when he says that I didn't have to fight TOO hard. Naturally, had we known it was MADELEINE we'd get, all along, there'd have been no fight at all!  (XOXOX) Here she is with one of our "original" cats -- Daisy or Cutie (probably Daisy).

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Give me a D!

While Katie made me a mom for the first time, it was with Madeleine that I finally became a stay-at-home mom -- something I'd always wanted. I "stayed home" for about five years and they were surely some of the best. Maddy was probably the most maternal of the girls and, obviously, liked her baby dolls. Katie didn't want a thing to do with them, ever; Ali played with "big" dolls -- a little with Barbie, a lot with American Girls; Maddy always had babies.

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Give me a Y!

My animal lover. I believe there's been a total of a half-day in the last 27 or so years that we've been pet-free. If Maddy had her way, we'd have something resembling the contents of the ark.

What does it spell? MADDY!

Happy Birthday to my lovely "baby"!

I can't believe she's 21!!

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And that's a wrap!! Same time, next year.  ; )