A Birthday Letter to My Daughter

Happy Seventh Birthday my Baby Girl;
What can I say about my girl now that you're SEVEN! Mikayla, you are an amazing mix of sweetness and quirkiness, you have a huge heart, and are always trying to please. Okay, maybe not always trying to please. I don't know about all the other seven year olds out there, but my darling princess is also working hard on her independence. There are most definitely times when I say "yes", you say "no", I say "up" you say "don't tell me what to do". I'm sure there will be lots of this "headbutting" in our future, and this is just a teeny glimpse of the teen age years!? You know what though, I love that independent streak. I hope it means you will stand up for yourself when you need to with other kids. I hope it means you are gaining an understanding of who you are, and that you are proud of who that person is, I hope you are finding a strong sense of self-worth and confidence.
Even with a little bit of seven year old attitude thrown in, you are still such a joy to be around, you are so genuine in everything you do. You are caring and kind, you show concern for how others are feeling, and are sensitive even to the point of crying when other people are upset. I love how you love your brothers, sharing with them and playing with them, setting a good example for them (most of the time). I love how helpful you want to be, sometimes too helpful, and the look of pride on your face even when you help do something as simple as set the table for me.
Mikayla, you approach life with an energy that sometimes is hard to reign in! This energy (aka loudness) can sometimes get you in trouble, but mostly it makes me smile, you remind me of myself at this age! I just love your crazy personality, I love that you start singing and dancing "Gangham Style" at the drop of a hat. I love how eager you are to learn, how you ask questions to learn more about what's going on all the time. I even love how you never stop talking, even at bedtime (and I have to leave the room with you still talking!).

Happy birthday my beautiful daughter. I am so privileged to have a front row seat to watch you grow into a beautiful person inside and out!

Love you sweetheart!

XOXO,
Mommy

Mikayla's Seventh Birthday

Mikayla's seventh birthday was last week on Monday (yes it has been hectic, and it's taken me this long to get the post out). Since her REAL birthday was on a school day Mikayla was worried that her birthday wasn't going to be special. Like I would ever let that happen, unless you're new around here, you know birthdays are a bit of a big deal to me.
Jan's family has always had a tradition of waking up the birthday girl (or boy) by singing "Happy Birthday" and giving them presents in bed first thing in the morning. We've tried to make this happen for our kids too, so they wake up feeling special right from the get-go on their day.

I also blew-up a few balloons and tied them to Mikayla's chair at the kitchen table, hung a couple streamers and made a little birthday place mat for Mikayla to have with breakfast before school.
Of course I made cupcakes for her to take to school, chocolate with vanilla icing and Smarties on top. And to make her school lunch special I got her one those pre-packaged lunchable things (you know the thing she begs for when she sees it at the store, and I shudder at the thought of buying).

After school she got to facetime with my parents (who are still in Belize), and talk to Jan's parents on the phone, and her aunties.

The highlight of the day for Mika was the present we gave her (of course every seven year old loves getting presents), she got a "walking" dog, in lieu of the real dog she actually wants. She can control where the dog goes by pressing buttons on the leash. All-in-all not so bad for a Monday birthday... just wait till you see what happened the following Saturday!!

Mikayla's Birthday Questionnaire - Seven Year Old Edition

Let's just start off by saying, I am so proud of me! I have now been successful in keeping up with birthday questionnaires for the kiddos for a whole year now!!!!!! I am usually NOT the follow through type, and I'm willing to admit this about myself, for that reason I didn't even start things like baby books for any of the kids. I figured there was no way I would be able to keep up with it, so why start? (Didn't want to disappoint the third child, who would inevitably ask later in life if he was really adopted). Maybe I'll have to rethink that about myself now...

Anyway, this is not about me, this post is about my big seven year old girl and a little peak into her quirky personality.

Here are Mikayla's answers to her birthday questionnaire, seven year old style...

1. Favourite Colour? Pink, Orange, Purple and Red
2. Favourite Food/Place to Eat? Sweets, Dairy Queen
3. Favourite thing to do? Play with my family and Go-Go (this is the new walking dog she got for her birthday, and has been begging for since before Christmas)
4. Best Friend? Danielle, Camryn and Khristina
5. Grade/Teacher? Grade 1, Miss Bever
6. What do you want to be when you grow up? A mommy, an artist and a veterinarian
7. Favourite Book? Rainbow Magic (fairy book) and Robert Munsch Books
8. Favourite Movie? My birthday movie (Escape From Planet Earth) and family movies
9. Favourite animal? Doggies and Kitties
10. What makes you happy? Everything (except for time outs)
11. What are you really good at? Drawing, I'm a good artist
12. Where is your favourite place to go? The park
13. What do you like to do with your brothers? Play kitty and Doggy
14. If you could have a super-power what would it be? Saving people, and NOT getting what I want (she was talking about how the "right" thing to do is not always what you WANT to do.)
15. What do Mom and Dad do that makes you happy? Hugs and kisses
16. What is one thing you've done that you are most proud of? My school work
17. What do you like best about school? My teacher
18. What would you like to learn to do better this year? to sit quietly and get no timeouts
19. What is the scariest thing you've had to do? climb to the top of a ladder to put the star on the Christmas tree
20. What is you're biggest achievement/accomplishment to date? Finishing Salamander swimming level and going into Swim Kids One


And in case you're interested, here's what she said last year: 6 Year Old Questionnaire