Anna. Birthday. Presents. Cake.
What a blessed ANNAversary we enjoyed celebrating with our girl this weekend.
She is in my favorite kid age, I think. 8/9. Third grade - which was the grade I taught another lifetime ago, but to this day I still swear that it is the sweet spot of childhood. Anna is that case in point. She is easy and so mature and, yet, so silly and flighty and innocent. She can whip off a killer pun like nobody's business and problem solve her way through new math without even the help of me doing the lesson, and in the next moments forget to brush her teeth or play the most tender and sweet round of play kitchen and dress up with Lasa. I receive this precious season of her life as SUCH. A. GIFT. How good is our Lord to give us sweet babies to watch and receive in all their ages, but especially in the third grade ages. Thank you, Lord! We LOVE you, Anna! You really are the {sweetest} girl we know.
Some snippets of Anna, off the top of my head, in this sweet spot age of 8 turning 9:
- Rhyming machine. The child has a flair for rhyming and poems. She loves the challenge and words and the ... rhymes! She was tickled by the rhyming dictionary I got her for her birthday.
- Pun machine. The child whips off puns that make her nerdy pun-loving momma SO proud. She writes so many puns, jokes, and poems, she has created an anothology to keep them all in one place.
- As creative and artistic as ever. She still creates artistic things like a machine. Most recently she has been exploring watercolor, other self-appointed projects stemming from school stuff like cipher codes used during the American Revolution, and now her newest venture into bible journaling. A friend at church, a former art teacher, is going to start some classes from her home and I have already signed Anna up. As well, she is back in the mood for sewing and was thrilled to whip out some costumes for a skit she was a part of at co-op recently.
- She's also creative in the gardening department - always faithfully at Josh's side working in the greenhouse. She is ALL. IN. Farmer Brown's legacy lives on. She is waiting most hopefully and expectantly for a good solid carrot crop for once. Girly wants to grow a carrot something fierce.
- Another common interest/passion she shares with her Daddy is enjoying a dip in the hot tub. She dons goggles and does handstands while there and loves to play a game called, "I'm thinking of ..." with him and Noah. She does not like when the jets are on in the hot tub. She likes the water calm.
- She likes how her Daddy makes her laugh when she is sad or upset. His tension-breaking ways are not lost on Anna. She once said to me, "That's why I love him." He really reaches her heart with his gentle, quiet ways.
- She shares Josh's passion for popcorn as well. It just about kills her when he makes popcorn after they go to bed because she can smell it from her bedroom. She says she can't wait to be a grownup and stay up late and watch TV. I feel for her! I remember feeling the same way at her age. Childhood is hard! HA!
- She can be exhausting. She exhausts me with the depth of detail in all her projects and ideas. They require a lot of materials, and steps, and attention. Great for her, notsomuch for me most times.
- She has the most sober, long eyes when I am going on and on with her correcting/reminding her about something. She takes her lectures and rants from momma like a champ. But the long eyes and porcelain almost see-through skin in her pale face is sometimes just too pitiful for words. Bless it!
- She loves to call me Mombie when I am on my Phone. Her combo of Mom+Zombie for being in that zone. She says she can't wait til she's a grown up and can be on her phone all day. :/
- This girl doesn't really laugh easy, which is why I think she laughs so hard when she does. Her best laughs usually come at the expense of me or Josh, when she is finding out some little detail about us she didn't know, or witnessing Josh and I play arguing or whathaveyou. She laughs so deep down, it's more like a guffaw, and she starts literally slapping her knees to get the energy and hilarity out. So goofy. So precious.
- The child reads multiple chapter books a day sometimes. I can't keep her in books. Bookworm is an understatement. And, oh, y'all. She reads aloud with such perfect expression. A teacher's dream. She stutters and hems and haws at points, too, which is so her and so ADDish, but it is so dear to me. Her favorite books to read are historical fiction. She's reading at a 5/6th grade level and racking up crazy amounts of AR points as she goes along.
- Along with all her readerly ways, she devours her Action Bible and Kingstone Bible volumes every night. She's read them each multiple times and has learned. so. much. for a kid her age. She knows things I never knew til I was an adult. She has an incredible memory of Scripture. It's stunning what a sponge she is. At the moment, she eats up our Bible video curriculum via The Bible Project.
- She impresses her teachers at church and co-op. Just last week, her teacher (who is the 4/5th grade teacher that let me bump Anna up to her class this year,) texted me from school to exclaim, "Oh my goodness - your daughter is so precious." and "Anna is so smart! Ask her about her journal." Kind words like that from other adults from first-hand experience with your baby ... well, they make a momma-heart explode. I know she is a gifted child. But it's fun to hear the remarks from others along the way.
- With Anna's smartness comes an equal degree of quickness too. Lately, she is quick to be sensitive to new nuances in situations. Like, when she went to her best friend's birthday party, she came home feeling odd/bad about herself because another girl gave Luci FIFTY freaking dollars and a gold two-dollar coin apparently? This instantly registered to Anna as embarrassing because her gift was not that much. Oh how my heart hurt to hear her recount this to me. It's a first for her .... the sensitivity to social stuff. Another example is her being in tears herself after being around a hard day for me/Noah. She'd heard him get in trouble all the live long day recently and repeatedly, heard me shouting and so mad, layed under the radar as a result and took care of Lasa while Noah and I went round and round. After a hard day of that, she was in gentle tears herself when Daddy put her to bed. She was so sensitive to how upset and tired I was after dealing with her brother, that she didn't wanna bring up the fact that I was forgetting to make her class cookies for her birthday at the same time. And this after looking forward to taking cookies all month because I forgot them last year! Bad mommy. Angel daughter. Photo follows of said birthday treats that she proudly took to school as planned thanks to Daddy mustering the energy to get us both working on them at 9:30 at night. (Something that amused her was that her teacher ALSO forgot to do them at school and they had to hustle to eat them right before pick up. Glad for that girl's sense of humor and understanding.)
- She is still as messy as ever, but it is under control more than years past - she appreciates when her space is cleaned up and it takes quite a bit longer than before to get to super messy status.
- The messiness, forgetfulness, and distractedness we have endured for years with her have all been severely curbed this year with her Rx meds for ADD. What a game-changer!
- She is so thoughtful. Makes cards for people and events and ideas at the drop of a hat. She is the first to ask Josh how his day is at dinner. It's adorable how considerate she is.
- And I repeat - she is so, so, so great at playing pretend with Lasa and teaching her how to play - dollhouse, baby dolls, coloring, playdoh, dancing, dress up, play kitchen, singing, rocks and sticks, on and on. She is also faithfully training her in all forms of our traditional rain and puddle play. ;)
- As her preteen years approach, she is suddenly and accordingly quite interested and specific about what she wants to wear and accessorize with and how to wear her hair. This is a new facet of our relationship - navigating that. And it's right that it should be so. I am just reporting the change is all. That it IS so now, Lordhelpus. I feel the nervous twitch of having to muscle through letting go and letting her style herself in ways I wouldn't pick and don't necessarily like either. Deep. Breaths. Kimmie! Let the child find her own way...
- Along those lines, however, she is so great to go shopping with. I so much enjoy her company shopping and she so much enjoys the one-on-one time with me, which I also love. Three cheers for daughters! Such a fun relationship.
- Funny habit of hers - she can sit on the potty as long as any grown man. Stocks up with a book or an iPad usually because she knows she'll be there awhile. I can't help but chuckle at it every time.
- She takes forever in the shower now, like her brother does. We call it The Anna Shower Hour. By that time of the day her medicine has worn off, so she is back to distracted and forgetful. Which means her wet towel is always forgotten to be hung back up. :/ And she is usually racing the clock to do her dust-busting chore before bedtime.
- She rolls with her brother and his interests like a champ - wrestling, arguing, playing football, Wii games, Minecraft, Legos, timed competitions, races, Nerf gun wars, board games, all of it. I love how having a brother shapes and balances her as the years go by.
- And in the interest of very basic but lovable details about the birthday girl, I wanna record that though she be skinny as a rail, she is still growing. Finally 49 lbs and 50 inches tall, wearing size 7/8 clothes, and size 1 or 2 shoes, depending on brands.
Precious, funny, and/or true things she's said lately, including jokes she invented herself:
- "Why do witches never write their spells in print? Because they prefer CURSE-ive. Get it?"
- "What happens to the sun because it never eats? It's STAR-ving. Get it? STARRRRR."
- "I just used a word and I didn't even know what it meant but it totally made sense and I thought, hey that's a good word!"
- "I don't know why but when I toot it never stinks. Either that or my nose doesn't work very well."
- When her hot dog was cold at dinner, she explained her lateness to the table by saying, "Well, I had to take over the world, Daddy, and that takes a long time!" She had been finishing a game on Minecraft, I wanna say.
- When learning about protons, neutrons, and electrons, she clarified out loud, "but these have nothing to do with CROUTONS." Stone-cold serious face, too, y'all. Kids are the best.
- When asked what she wanted for her birthday, she didn't have anything she could thing of at first. I was surprised by that. She goes, "Yeah, I don't really want anything because I am satisfied and content with what I have already."
So, birthday business - We had done cake and presents over the weekend by virtue of just having more down time for it then, but for her actual birthday on Monday, Sept. 25, we went out to dinner, her choice. She was in the mood for burgers, root beer, and fries, so we hit up Swaney Swifts on the Square in Gallatin. Her bestie, Luci, joined us that afternoon for a playdate and for dinner. She had a blast playing coin-operated machines in the restaurant, but
was indignant at the injustice of the claw machines not ever yielding a
prize. We had to cut her off after she spent coins we gave them and then dollar after dollar of her
own money and was going in with another of her $5 bills! The staff surprised Anna with a complimentary pink birthday-cake flavored milkshake with a candle and all. It was so adorable, but also so sweet she couldn't make herself drink it. HA!
So, Luci ordered a plain vanilla shake and they shared. Adorbs!
Oh, my sweet Annagirl. I have run out of words and ways to say how much I love you, enjoy you, regard you, and genuinely like you. You are great, kid. Keep up the good work being true to the impulses the Lord gives you and the interests and strengths He has built into you. May you always march to the beat of your own drum like you do now and may you always be so steadily in God's word as you are now, reading your many Bibles every night. I have no greater joy than when I hear you speak of spiritual things. What a blessing to watch you grow up and grow up in the Lord. You make us so proud, you bless our hearts, you bless our family, you are a delight. Happy Birthday, my baby girl!!
So much love, Mommy
