Seven Years In

It is the night of your seventh birthday.  The house is quiet.  You and your sisters lay exhausted and asleep in your beds.  The last 24 hours a whirlwind of birthday streamers, balloons, sugar-frosted cakey dreams punctuated with laughter, fun friends and good wishes from family.  The only noise I hear right now is that of the Oscars droning on in the background.  I sit surrounded by a tiny golden light lost in the thoughts of the day as glittering stars smile their toothy grins. 

They say it goes in a blink of an eye.  It never quite seems that way when you’re in the throes of new babyhood, colicky evenings, sleepless nights and those early preschool days, now does it?  Instead it revolves around getting the right car seat and sleeping through the night.  Living moment to moment is what you can achieve. It isn’t until you hit a moment like watching your now seven year-old sit at the kitchen table doing something as simple as eating a sandwich she made, a book propped up on a knee while the other leg dangles casually over the side of a chair.  You stand there stunned because she is really reading that book.  A book that has more words than pictures on each page and now she is in on the secret.  The secret being that world that you step into when you open a book and read it.

I think of all the material gifts we work to give you and wonder if any could be as important as the gift of reading, good health and knowing how to navigate life in a way that is comfortable and successful for you.  I know the answer to this question obviously but it is now in this very moment and the ones that come quicker than ever before that I see that she is really growing up.  Time is truly of the essence.  Her adoring eyes, her quick hugs are fleeting just like her easy to solve frustrations.   It is becoming harder to let go of even her sisters now because through TD I can see how fast time is flying.

To our wonderful girl and her own toothy grin.   Your ability to tell stories and put words on paper blows me away each time.  Another year of getting to know you, see the world through your eyes and realize that sometimes screaming like you are in a slasher film is a way of expressing pure joy, even if it is over a slice of cake, is pure fun.

Happy 7th birthday, TD.  We still cannot believe how lucky we really are to have you in our own little world.