Ode to Kate on Your Golden Eighth Birthday

Dear Kate,

I don't know how it happened, but this morning, we woke up and you were a full fledged, bonafide, beautiful, full of life 8-year old not so-little girl.

In every way, I love you.

You exemplify what it means to be a sweet, sassy fairy princess who lives to read books about dragons and to paint colorful Hummingbirds all while you battle Nerf guns with your older brother and teach your younger sister how to write her name.

You are spunky and everyday and twice on Tuesday can hold your own.  You're not afraid to speak your mind particularly, when you're defending the under dog or advocating on someone's behalf.

Absolutely different from me, you live smack dab in the moment taking in the color of the grass and the sadness of the world and the joy in your heart and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything will be okay.

You abhor red meat and adore virtually every fruit and vegetable especially, edamame and cucumbers.  Lover of granola and grapenuts and glitter and tempura paint and canvases and diaries with locks on them and saying Hail Mary's when ambulances drive by...you are more amazing than you know.

Days ago, you selected a super cool pair of sparkly purple spectacles to serve as your inaugural pair  and when I see you in them, well, it takes my breath away.  You're so grown up...

In a few weeks, you'll begin third grade and inevitably, the world will open even more...your interests will vary, your ideas will develop, your heart will swell and break and the things you knew to be true may shift as is bound to happen when you add another birthday to your beautiful life.

So just for a little bit longer, I say thank you....thank you for letting me make Pippy Longstocking braids in your mane, indulging my love of mismatched dresses and tights, calling you pet names like "Cat-uh-lone-ay" and "Kate-girl," reading to you the same stories over and over again because the main character is a super hero girl who saves the world and for accepting my OCD, crazy mama ways all in the name of love.

It's hard to capture in words all of the things that I want for you.  And so I've decided to encourage you to keep on keepin on...because really, you're doing such a great job of living a life on purpose.  Keep loving those who seem unloveable.  Keep painting a world of color and dreaming of places where magic, princesses, dragons and sorcerers create the unexpected.  Keep using your gifts to make others smile, laugh and feel connected to one another.

On this day, your Golden 8th birthday, may you be reminded of what a gift you are to our family, how much we adore every part of you and how excited we are to see what the new year brings.  Fasten your seat belt...I think you're going to love every minute.

xoxo, Mama