The Baby is officially a teen now. Not that we use the word teenager much around these parts, we prefer youth or young adult. She’s taller than me now…just by half an inch, but it’s still a thing. Now Corra, Naomi, and I all have the same shoe size and Corra and I can wear the same clothes. My baby is delightful. Everything in her head and heart usually ends up out in the open…she finds comfort in talking through things with me. I love that because I always know exactly where she is at. 8th grade, well all of middle school if I’m honest, has provided a lot of…food for thought…for her and I’m glad she doesn’t feel the need to process it all on her own.
Here’s a very few things I love about Corra right now in this moment, in no particular order:

She is super sensitive. Now that she’s 13 she can start to watch PG-13 movies…we are taking it slow.

She still likes to be silly and is learning to love to be girly. Not a frilly princess by any stretch, but a little makeup on occasion and loving a cute twirly dress in high heels.

Super smart and loves school. Still loving training to be an aerialist.

She’s discovered boys and loves talking about all the “hot” fictional boys with her big sister. Unfortunately the boys in her classes don’t live up to expectations.

After our Seaworld adventure Corra declared that her birthday cake was to be an orca and beluga yin yang made out of red velvet cake, her favorite. Because that is normal at our house. But we didn’t do her cake until the week after her birthday so in the mean time I let her squish a store bought mini cake so she could have red velvet cake balls in her lunch on her actual birthday. We had a temple trip in there too…she and her dad are still buds.

Cake was a success. Presents were only from her sisters and Grandpa because her trip was her present from Neil and me. Naomi got her a sweater she wanted and Layna got her a new coloring book. Grandpa got her a t-shirt from some YouTube creators in Australia that she really likes. Over all it was an excellent way to cross over into teenagedom. I love my baby girl.

P.s. the picture above is the lunch note I put in her lunch.