Happy Birthday

Dear Julianna,
Where do I begin?  I can not believe it is your 9th birthday.  It certainly comes as no surprise as you have been counting down the days since sometime mid-August.  You are very excited about your birthday, an excitement that is reflective of you and your enthusiasm for life in general--especially holidays and special days.  You're a very happy person who gets a lot of pleasure out of life.  I am so very thankful that I am privileged enough to be able to witness your jeux de vivre.  I hope you are able to maintain your natural sunniness for your whole life.

This year, of course, you have continued  to grow, both physically as well as in many other ways.  You've grown 2 inches in the last 6 months alone.  I have been so excited to witness your love of reading as it's flourished.  You're discovering that you have a great love of reading and eagerly head to bed each night to lose yourself in some story or another.  That's one of my greatest joys to have passed on to you the love of books.  This year you've especially enjoyed broadening your love of mysteries, Nancy Drew has been a big favorite, a character you honored by dressing up as for Halloween.  You also continue to love the American Girl books, their stories captivate you, sometimes too much.  You now have a definite feel for the horror of the yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans and how awful it must have been to not have modern medicine at your disposal.  We're definitely both enjoying the mother-daughter book club at the library that we've found. It's fun to have an activity that we can do together. 


I know you crave more time with me.  I know you wish that I could be the kind of mommy you so desperately want me to be.  I'm sorry I can't be there for all the parties, volunteering in your classroom each week and there, wherever you want me, whenever you want me.  I know it's hard for you when the realities of my working disappoint you and I'm not sure you realize how sorry I am about that.  At the same time, I know you love having playmates to play with after school and enjoy the babies and seeing them grow.  There's a ying-yang to everything sweetheart.

Ballet is definitely still a true love.  You enjoy your 2 classes a week and work very hard.  If someone asks you what you like to do, dance will always be at the top of your list.  You'd love to have a ballet barre, I promise we're thinking about it, it's very hard to figure out where  it could go/how it could work in our house.  Currently, you're hard at work learning your part in the Nutcracker--an angel.  Although it makes me giggle a bit everytime someone refers to you as an angel, I will admit it's a pretty fitting moniker, albeit an angel with a passionate personality.  Woe to any of us that make you mad, you're fiery and emotional, but your tempers cool quickly and you don't hold grudges.

You've also discovered a love of music.  For your birthday you're hoping for an Ipod, we hope you'll be happy with a shuffle as your first one.  I am definitely not ready to lose you to the isolation of headphones, so you'll also be receiving an adorable panda speaker so you can plug in your shuffle and not unplug from our world as well.  I'd bet Taylor Swift, The Band Perry and Sugarland will be among the first songs on your shuffle.  Of course, Dynamite and Firework will be there too, they're also among your favorites right now.

Liv dolls and American girls are about the only toys you consistently play with right now, you've never been a big toy-player, but that's all right.  I think it's a bit easier for you as you start to grow into your other interests.  I know for Christmas you're going to be hoping for practically anything and everything from Fashion Angels--make-up kits, fashion designers, you are definitely a girly girl that loves all those things.

Braces have particularly been hard for you the past couple of weeks.  I'm so thankful that you're finding your rhythm with them.  The new rubber bands, smaller and tighter than any rubber band should be, seemed particularly impossible two weeks ago, yet in your enviable style, you're winning the battle, even learning to put them on and take them off yourself now.  I admire so much the way you approach life with so much guts and determination.  It will take you far in whatever you choose to do.  You also are incredibly organized.  A lot of your security comes from knowing what's going to happen and when, I hope you're able to hang on to your natural organizational skills, yet also maintain a healthy respect for flexibility.  We can't always control everything and that's okay sweetheart.  Hopefully life will have much more good than bad in store for you and you'll be able to trust your world and your abilities to handle the curves you are thrown. 


Well, I could go on and on.  I love you very much, admire the person you are as well as the person you're becoming and I am oh so thankful to God that he chose me to have the awesome role of being your mother.  I'm off to bake the chocolate cake you requested.  We're also having salmon, red skin mashed potatoes, and yellow squash casserole, the meal you wanted for your birthday dinner.


I hope the coming year continues to bring special things for you.  I hope I am blessed enough to continue sharing it with you.  I love you bunches my little junie b.

Mommy