Oh how has she been my sun, moon and stars for eleven years already I’ll never know! She has taken over our world for even longer than that as well! And today is her day! Her birthday!
Oh Letty. This year has changed you in so many ways! You are a mother hen, a rule follower, a responsible little lady. You are wonderful with your little cousins and your brothers’ friends. You are so incredibly loud. You are in charge of all the things. You love your friends so much and your family (and yes, even those gross brothers of yours) even more.
You love Harry Potter and legos. Watching YouTube and making bracelets. Mama Mia (still) and all things flowy and floral. Staying up late and getting up early. Cuddling the cats whether they like or not and coding music videos. All the live theater productions and musicals. Taylor Swift forever and ever. Singing loud for all to hear. You always have hair ties and bracelets and scrunchies and anklets on. You’re one cool chick!
Letty still loves to do all the things. Field hockey and Girl Scouts and church camp and always with her friends, always. We have let her stay home alone for very small bits of time and always with her iPad next to her side and she has to respond to my texts ASAP! She loves that. She loves to vacuum and wet mop my floors. Her room is a mess and a half and full of all the things... it makes my mind reel. She still doesn’t love tutoring but does love that she had the summer off.
She’s almost five feet tall and almost one hundred pounds and when did that happen?! She can pick me up. Off the ground. Quite literally. But I can still hold her if I really brace my core and put my back in to it haha! She worries a lot about far too many things and I really wish she didn’t. Can we park here? Is this allowed? Can we go this way? Is this place open? Etc. It is like I have failed her in someway and yet I’m not sure how. She should trust me more...
She works so hard. Truly. Every day. It still makes my heart hurt when I hear her struggle to come up with a word or when I watch her try and spell a word out… she still says things like “cheykain” which boy does she love collecting keychains… I worry for her in Middle School but she seems to be so excited to go! She is so brave! I know deep down she will be fine but I mean, Middle School!? Her teachers always have nothing but the best things to say about her. Math and STEM and art are her favorites... maybe science depending on the subject matter...
Oh Letty. You have grown and changed so much in this past year… you are a little lady now and in far more ways than just your mannerisms and your attitude. You are a wonder and a joy and the most fantastic little person. I love when it is just you and I in the van and you’re sitting in the front seat singing along to the radio… I try to watch you out of the corner of my eye and I think, remember this forever Laur, and then you catch me watching you and this giggle bursts out of you and you smile and say “what?!” And I say... Nothing…. Just love you, you beautiful girl! Those freckles, that laugh, your singing, your creativity and rule following self! You made my life Letty Bet. Always. Happy eleventh birthday!
