Happy birthday, baby girl

My baby girl is 6! Well, 6 + a day. We were moving non-stop yesterday so I didn’t have a moment to collect my thoughts.

How to describe you? Seriously, how in the world can I describe you? I hate the “describe your child in one word” things anyway, but with you, it’s downright impossible. You are the most confident child I’ve ever met, until you aren’t. You love all things cutesy and fancy, until you see a mud puddle. You love attention, until you don’t. You are attached to my hip, until you see something better. You blaze your own path, until you see a crowd to follow.

For every single one of your character traits, you have an opposite trait. The only thing I’m confident in saying about you is that there is absolutely nobody else like you and I love it.

You’ve finally left the rain boots and snow boots behind and now wear slip-ons even with snow on the ground. You still love princess dresses, but you’ve expanded your wardrobe to include “what princesses might have worn”. You sing the Hamilton soundtrack non-stop and name your dolls Peggy (or a random made up name).

Your speech is still the cutest thing anyone has ever heard, but masks have definitely made it hard to understand you. You say “eventually” a lot. Most of the time I think you’re substituting it for “actually” (“eventually, Mom, I do love frosting”), but you do use actually accurately sometimes so I really don’t know.

You loved your chicken, Charlotte, but she turned out to be Charlie and had to be returned along with the others, but replacements are on the way and I know you’ll love them just as much.

You’ve proven to be one of the most optimistic, resilient children I’ve ever known in the midst of all this. While you do ask to see friends and family sometimes, you quickly say “darn covid” and start talking about alternatives instead. You asked to go to the zoo for your birthday just to see the aviary. That’s all you asked for for your birthday. When we got there, the aviary was closed, but you didn’t even miss a beat. You said, “Well, we’ll move along and see what else we can find. It’ll still be my best birthday yet.” And since you got called up to feed a sea lion, you quickly declared it your best birthday.

You are universally loved. You give the best compliments. You are quick to say “I love your shirt” or something else great as soon as you meet someone. You can exchange a couple sentences with someone and walk away saying, “I just met a great new friend!”

You make the world a better place. You have been our rainbow in the rainstorm that has been 2020. I love watching you grow and am incredibly grateful that you’re in my life.

I love you so much, Baby Girl.

By themagnificentms

Goodbye, 2020

Well, kids, we’re currently saying goodbye to 2020.

We’re laying in bed, watching Croods 2, eating cheesecake, and just generally being lazy. Basically, we’re wrapping up 2020 in the same way we spent the rest of 2020.

Everybody experienced 2020 differently. And don’t get me wrong, I spent plenty of time full of anxiety, barely holding it together. But we had plenty of food in our bellies (a little too much, in my case), a roof over our heads, and each other.

Now that 2020 is on its way out, I find myself looking back with rose-colored glasses. Some parts were rough, but a lot of it was really great.

We gave ourselves grace. The floors are dirty? Well, who’s going to see them? Want to wear your pajamas for 3 days in a row? Have at it. Want a meat and cheese tray for dinner? If you call it a charcuterie platter, it totally counts as a fancy meal.

2020 meant we could say no. We don’t need to have a different activity every night. It’s ok (amazing, actually) to do NOTHING for a whole weekend. The whole point of a weekend is to relax and recuperate from the week, but ours were always just as packed full of plans as our week.

2021 will be here tomorrow, and everyone seems to think a switch will magically be flipped and everything will go back to normal. But what if we don’t want everything back the way it was? What if we’ve enjoyed our little break from the world? Because, honestly, every time we venture out into the wider world, it makes our little hideaway seem that much better.

So, we say goodbye, 2020. I hope we hold on to some of the strength you gave us and remain our own advocates.

By themagnificentms