Circle Time/Show & Tell: Me! 1st Christmas/Birthday

I love this photo -- my first studio portrait! It was taken by a photographer from my grandparents' small town in Minnesota -- the same photographer who did my parents' wedding portrait.

It was taken in December 1961, just before my first Christmas and my first birthday. I remember seeing copies in both my grandparents' homes -- Christmas gifts, perhaps? I love that you can see a hand -- most likely my mother's -- on the seat of the chair in the lower right-hand corner -- just under my diaper-&-plastic-pants-clad butt, ready to catch me if should teeter on the chair.

And I love the little dress (it's baby blue -- which has long been my favourite colour. The dress I wore for my first day of grade one, and the dress I wore for my high school graduation, were both light blue as well). Several years ago, my mother gave me a bag full of baby clothes that my sister & I had worn -- post-Katie, but when we still hoped to have another child. This dress was in the bag. I knew that if we had a baby girl, I would have her wear it for her one-year portrait.

Tomorrow (January 12th) is my birthday -- my 48th birthday. My ttc years are fast fading into the past. (AF, however, continues to hang around & taunt me...!) I used to joke that I was following the example of my great-grandmother, who famously gave birth to her last child in 1923 at the then-positively-ancient age of 47 (no fertility drugs or donor eggs then!!). Having now been 47 for a whole year, I can't imagine how she did it (and she had five other children as well, ranging in age from 6 to 18!!). I get tired just thinking about it.

There is a certain relief in seeing this part of my life finally fading into the past -- getting closer to menopause and being done, really & truly done, with the whole thing -- although I'm sure my (in)fertility journey will continue to make its impact felt for the rest of my life.

Birthdays aren't quite what they used to be when I was younger -- or what they would be if we had a child around, I'm sure -- but they're still a good excuse for indulgence. ; ) Dh took me shopping this afternoon, & we're going out for steaks tomorrow night after work. There has to be some compensation for growing older, right??

For more of this week's Show & Tell, hop on over to the Stirrup Queen's blog.