She's just growing up so fast!

As I have mentioned before I don't remember much from my childhood. Before the age of 7 I have 3 memories. Me wearing a diaper, drinking root beer out of a bottle, sitting on a potty chair, watching Star Wars in our house in Iowa. Then there's the story I have been told so many times that it is now a memory: my two older sisters dragging me through the snow in a laundry hamper and taking my boots off because they thought that was why I was crying. I think I might have been crying because of the cold. But who could blame a seven and five year old? The third memory is of the going away party some friends threw for our family in Iowa. All I remember was the party was in someones garage and the spread of food included raccoon. (When we move to Iowa it is going to be a town of 5,000, as a child we lived in a town of 2,000. I really hope that things are more modern!)

The real memories started after we moved to Minnesota. And what I mean by real memories is that I have like 5-10 instead of just 3. I don't really remember my family at all. I don't know what that means. The memories that I do have are of me doing dare devil type things. I loved walking across the top of the monkey bars, at age 6. On our school playground we had pull-up bars that were parallel to monkey bars, you could find me climbing to stand on the pull-up bars and jumping to the monkey bars. I remember hanging upside down until my legs gave out and I fell on my head. My teacher made me go to the nurse and I had to sit with an ice pack on my head for way longer then I cared to. I remember rollerblading before anyone else had rollerblades. I got my first ten speed bike when I was ten and my dad went with me on the maiden voyage. I loved going fast. And curving around corners so fast that you have to lean in. The sad part was I totally spilled and had scrapes all the way up my back. I didn't really care. I had had so many scrapes that I didn't cry anymore. This brings me to my story.

Yesterday Bill took the girls to the park. They were playing on the swings and Bill said he turned his back for 2 seconds to push Campbell and then he sees James flying out of the corner of his eye.

Her account: "I wanted to get off the swing so I just jumped and closed my eyes."

I wish I could say she landed perfectly, but she didn't. She scraped up her arm. Bill said she belly flopped. I don't really care about the details. It just makes me so proud that she had the guts to just jump! I'm sure she has seen Bill and I hop off the swing, or the big kids jump really far off the swings. Oh, do I remember that! I wish these adult bodies were as resilient as kids! Pictures of her following in my foot steps and pushing the limits of gravity brings a smile to my face!

p.s. her favorite song is Defying Gravity from Wicked!