Birthday

This image shows why #2D rejected my offer to take her ID photo yesterday; the upkeep of the look would have been extreme. It's another in my occasional series of Beatles song titles, in honour of #1 daughter who is 25 today. If you'd like to hear Macca's surprisingly-good-for-an-old-guy's live version of the song, click here.

#1D is nothing like me in temperament, or her siblings for that matter. She has what might tactfully be described as a "strong" personality; will loudly defend her rights and speak out over injustices to herself or others, is very determined and will put a lot of energy and effort into attaining a desired goal. I admire these qualities and wish I had them too. On the downside she can be very hard work at times, for although she will accept your point of view it does have to be skillfully pleaded.

As a child she gave me a few grey-hair-inducing moments. At 18 months she fell at nursery and broke her arm. Running around later with a sling she tripped, and, unable to put her arms out to save herself, fell flat on her face and suffered a black eye and split lip. I should say by way of explanation that she was born with in-turned feet and the specialist advised me to get good-quality shoes and put them on the wrong feet to help them to straighten out as she walked. This did lead to comments from helpful people in the street of course, but was nothing compared to the looks I got in a supermarket, dragging a crying toddler (I wouldn't let her have the banana until it was paid for) around with a broken arm, battered face and wrong shoes on. I expected Social Services to arrive at any minute.

Another fond(?) early memory is when she decided to cut her younger sister's hair the day before she was due to have first-birthday photos taken. The resulting pictures show a bald baby with a few spiky tufts.

Many years of stories have gone by, and now she's a grown woman with an honours degree and a responsible job, a car, and still living at home.... which is nice, when she's not redesigning it. The best thing about daughters is that they eventually grow out of all that critical attitude and turn into friends.

Happy birthday Amy. Love you X.