How big are you now, Naomi?

For real life. She’s not kidding.
One of my on-going projects is converting my old blog into photo books, mostly for my kids to read. Oddly enough they love a book where they are the main characters…who knew? There was a post I did about the epic Rapunzel dress I made for her for Halloween when she was four. I joked that someday when she was a teenager throwing a fit, I’d pull out the dress and she’d never be able to say I didn’t love her. Well she thinks that post is hilarious because she’s officially been a teenager for two years now and we haven’t come anywhere near that level of fight. As far as teenage girls go, Naomi is a keeper. Nothing like me when I was 15…I was straight up obnoxious with a capital “eye roll”.
My oldest girl continues to make me marvel at her poise and creative brain. We knew early on that she was our artist in residence and it’s been a pleasure to watch her grow and get better at all the stuff that lights up her soul. Mostly writing and drawing. Sigh. I worry sometimes that she pressures herself to get it all right on the first go or that she bottles up her emotions. Then we chat and she opens up a window into her head and I calm right on down. She’s fine. In fact, she’s more than fine…she’s spectacular. I know that eventually she’ll hit rough patches that are less than spectacular and she’ll have big things to sort out. At this particular moment in time, on this particular birthday we are breathing spectacular in deep.

The day started with a rousing game of chess which Naomi loves and her sisters don’t love but she guilted them into it because it was her birthday. Remember how Naomi is “this big”? This year she wanted to make all the birthday meals. She nailed waffles, left over pizza (that was a gimme), and Spaghetti pie. Also…THE CAKE! She made the actual cake all by herself. Then she was whisked off to lunch with my dad so I did the boring part of stacking and frosting. The goal was the most sour cake in the history of sour. We went with a citrus sandwich cake out of her “Harry Potter Cookbook” filled with a lemon/lime curd. Then it was frosted with a stabilized whipped cream to balance the citrus. Overall…she did an amazing job. Dr. Pepper ice cream because 1) sour ice cream isn’t a thing unless you count sherbet and 2)she’s big now and Dr. Pepper is her favorite soda since I relaxed the no caffeine rule because since she’s taller than me I figure she’s mostly full grown. Makes sense?
Presents were gifted and she loved them all. Her big present from us is late. Custom designed Converse (pink with embroidered flowers) take a little bit longer to ship, but we are all thinking they will be worth the wait.
Every year we feel luckier to be her parents and that’s saying something.