The Child Who Never Smiled

This past weekend saw us celebrating my eldest's 19th birthday.

 

Wow! I can't believe it! 19 years. It has been long and yet....so quick.

 

What I remember most about those early years when she was a mere babe was that she was a child who never gave away her smiles. Her laughs were few and far between.

 

Not that she was a lonely sad child. On the contrary, I think we've raised her to be quite happy and carefree. Except of course, she never expressed it in any kind of laugh or grin. I found it real difficult to make her amused enough to break a smile. Believe me, hubby and I tried many times to get her to show her pearly whites (well, okay, it was more like "mostly gum" smile back then). But she would not budge.

 

Nowadays.....well, we seemed to have grown out of this phase and lost the inhibition.

 

On her recent birthday celebration, we took this picture of a girl with the most genuine and jovial of smiles. How can you resist?

 

Happiest of days, my darling.