HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CEILI DOWD!

Ceii turned sixteen today.  Wow.  It seems like yesterday when her mother turned sixteen.  I guess I'm getting old.

Ceili, though, embodies that old commercial slogan, you're not getting older, you're getting better.  She's a young woman now, and one that I am so very proud of.  It goes without saying that Ceili is beautiful, but I'm going to say it anyway:  Ceili is beautiful.  Her beauty from within matches her beauty without.  She is a sweet, funny, caring, talented girl, whip-smart and independent.

I first met her just a few minutes after she was born.  She melted my heart then.  My heart still melts every time I see her smile.  From day one, she made me remember an important lesson I had sometimes put aside.  Ceili, you see, was happy.  You could tell.  She was happy to be here.  She was happy to be.  As a baby, as a toddler, as a child, now as a young woman -- she brings a sense of joy to the world and to those around her.

She can be stubborn (she is her mother's child and her grandparents' granddaughter after all), but she also loyal and giving.  There is not a single bit of malice in her (something she specifically inherited from her mother and from Kitty).  If there is any person in the world you would want in your corner, it's Ceili.

I wish her, with all my love, a wondrous day today.  I know she's going to have a wonderful life, just as I know she has helped make my life so wonderful.