Today you are 10 years old.

Ten

Diez

A Decade

Double Digits

You are smart, but more importantly you are curious. You want to understand that which is new to you. You aren’t afraid to ask for a definition or an explanation. Explanations, that given the complexities of this world we live in, I am sometimes woefully unprepared to offer. Be patient, I am trying.

You are stretching and growing so fast. Everyday, the little girl facade cracks a little revealing a maturing you. Your thirst for maturity and responsibility grows by the day. Your dad and I struggle to achieve the delicate balance between encouraging your growth and maintaining your safety. Most of the time, it isn’t that you aren’t ready for new responsibilities, it is that we, your parents aren’t ready for you to be ready for those responsibilities. We’ll get there.

I am quick to grouse when the laundry STILL isn’t put away or when I trip making my way across your room. Yet, I don’t tell you often enough how proud I am of you. I assume you know, but I need to remember offer more praise, you deserve it.

You do what your supposed to do when you are supposed to do it so often, I forget to say thank you and good job. I come to expect it and yet I think the level of responsibility you demonstrate is remarkable for your age.

You are a fantasitc big sister. Your brother can drive you nuts, and you require your own time and space, but you look out for him and seek him out to play with him. He thinks you a pretty special too.

I love the way you move back and fourth between your roles as emerging tween and little girl. Never let go of the little girl completely.

I love that everyone who meets you has nothing but great things to say about you. Your teachers say you are a joy to have in class and they wish they could clone you. They are amazed at how you make connections between what you are learning and your own experiences. The neigbhor says you are kind and sweet and so patient when you work as a mother’s helper.

I love that out of the blue, you ask about a friends we haven’t seen in a while and say “we should get together with them soon.”

Your heart is huge and given easily and sometime that means it gets bruised easily too. I cringe on those days and while I want to go bop whomever has hurt your feelings, I hang back and try to help you work it through on your own. Never mistake my lack of action for a lack of caring. I’ve got your back baby!

You have a sense of style and organization that is all your own. Often it puzzles me, but I am enjoying watching it develop. I hope that you will continue to mix and match.

I can see some of both of your dad and I in you and yet there is a third part, that is all you. I am enjoying watching as you take the pieces we’ve given you, mix them with your own expereinces and desires and mold them into a person that is truly you.

Mother daughter relationships are notoriously fraught with challenges. We have ours and will, no dobut, have more, but I want you to know that no matter what, I will always love you and ultimately while I want nothing but the best for you, what matters most to me is that you figure out what makes you truly happy.

Happy 10th Fisharoo!