to my daughter on her 7th birthday

Holdy –

Happy, Happy Day. Your sixth year was a pretty big one, kiddo. You grew up so much this year. Physically (holy crap):

You lost three teeth so far and you have a pretty weird teeth-gap formation going on right now, to be honest. You’ve grown like a weed. You grew your hair out from last year’s Mommy-bob.

You’ve grown so much academically, as well. You are a whiz at math, you’re writing full sentences and your reading has improved SO MUCH! At your end-of-year Readers’ Theatre, you literally had your part memorized. I was so impressed! You loved first grade and your teacher, Ms. Waninger.

You’ve also grown so much emotionally and maturity-wise, and I’m so proud of you for that. You’ve learned to verbalize more of the worries and emotions you’re feeling and you’re able to use the skills you’ve learned to solve problems when they come up. We still have some rough patches but we’re getting better at getting through them… together.

This year you developed a weird interest in creepy stuff, like haunted dolls and scary video games like Granny & Five Nights at Freddie’s. I actually found you a “haunted” doll on eBay (named Valeria) so we have our own creepy doll watching over the house.

Your love of art continues – you like to draw and make crafts (which you said “calms you down”). You also like to write me inspirational and lovely notes.

This year you developed an interest in architecture and civil engineering after our trip to Disneyland (where you also discovered a love of churros).

That interest led to you and Mom teaming up to build a dog park near our house… prompted by Brutus learning how to open the front door and escape. You decided he needed a place to run and play and so now we’ve participated in two fundraisers, raised more than $7,000 and have a professional designer working on Pal’s Park. You’re a pretty amazing kid.

You continue to be a trendsetter and fashionista and you like when I post “hashtag what Holdy wore” photos of you. You don’t wear your glasses as much as you should!

You got to be a flower girl in two weddings this year – mine & Flippy’s and Uncle Max & Aunt Becky’s.

You’re playing tee-ball again this year, which you don’t love (even though you’re great at it). And you’ve returned to gymnastics (again), which you do love.

Flippy just got you some roller skates and Nanny and Duke are going to be surprising you with a new bike today (shh!) so it looks like you’re going to be hell on wheels this summer (let’s hope not literally).

You and GB continue to have a love-hate relationship. I play referee every day from about 4pm-9pm and then you two absolutely insist on still sleeping together at night. You guys view separation as a punishment.

You love to sing “Old Town Road” and do fortnite dances (we draw the line at dabbing). You’ve taken some hip hop dance classes, which were super fun and I hope you want to do again soon. You just kinda feel the beat and go with it.

You’ve eaten cheeseburgers for dinner the last three nights in a row, you’re obsessed with Sarah’s Snacks granola, and this year discovered a love for cereal and steamed shrimp.

You just got a super-cool new bedroom upgrade.