How is it even possible to have a child old enough to graduate?!

Because seriously, last time I looked, she was about 10.   It's hard to believe that two little long haired, twirling hippies had a baby, just yesterday, I swear:

I'm not even sure she was baby so much as little froglette here...and we were so young and absolutely CLUELESS about the adventure we were setting out on.  But somehow, this little baby thrived in our care:

Became a beauty...we thought (still do) the most beautiful baby in all the land.  She was witty and funny, even as a toddler, speaking to us in adult speak accented by a faint lisp...one that my speech therapist mother didn't even have to cure...she was so smart she self corrected!

We delighted in the fact that her hair stayed red, and were even more pleased when freckles dotted the bridge of her nose, and eventually her entire sweet face:

a la the then also sweet faced Lindsay Lohan!

This sweet little girl of mine is at school for her last full day.  Her last full day of high school!  Tomorrow she goes to prom...looking like the most beautiful girl I've always known she is:

The world is lying at her feet.  Anything can happen.  The future belongs to her.  I'm insanely proud and love her fiercely.  And while I occasionally miss that sweet baby face, I look forward to knowing the woman she is becoming.  I mean it, despite the tears that are welling up trying to convince me otherwise.