Jada turns 2 tomorrow...

I'm exhausted, the house is quiet, and I'm thinking a lot about Jada and Joli. Jada turns 2 tomorrow.... I remember exactly how I was feeling and what was going on that day 2 years ago. I figured I'd write about it now since tomorrow is going to be packed with fun!

It was a Friday afternoon when I left work, relieved to be taking the next week off as I was getting closer to my due date. The Vega family was in town and was leaving on Saturday. Around 6:00am on Saturday morning, I woke up and just couldn't get back to sleep. I remember tossing and turning and feeling kind of crampy. I got up, made coffee, and felt my belly hurt somewhat regularly. I decided to time it "just for fun" and my belly hardened every 20 minutes or so.

Around 8:00am, after everyone was slowing getting up, I called the doctor to see if I should do anything. She said, "It doesn't sound like you're in pain, so you must be fine." At 8:20am, I called back -- this time, in PAIN. Jorge and I drove to the hospital where they decided that, yes, I was going to give birth that day. At around 12:45pm, I started pushing, and by 1:06pm, Jada Grace joined us in this world.

Today, while driving home from New York, I stared at Jada in the rear view mirror and realized both how small and how big she looked. I also remembered that it was at this age that Joli was diagnosed with cancer. I do know that we've "moved on" in a lot of ways, but there will always be those milestone moments that remind me of our journey with her cancer. While Jada is such a smart, articulate, mature little gal, I am reminded just how little, small, and tiny Joli was when we went through this ordeal.

Tonight, Joli took her eye out to clean it because she had lots of build up around it. When she did, she called Jada over to the bathroom to explain what she was doing. She told Jada that she had a "special eye" and that she had to take it out. She explained to Jada that she, herself, had 2 seeing-eyes. There are key moments when Joli proves how much she has grown - the fact that she could explain this to her baby sister was just so remarkable. Joli then looked at herself in the mirror and said, "Mommy, I think my red eye is pretty, too. I didn't think it was pretty before, but now I think it's really pretty."

I couldn't agree more.....