Happy Birthday, Dear Anika

She’s the extrovert to my introvert. She’s the wild, crazy ideas to my methodical, detailed solutions. She’s the music and noise lover to my silence craving. She’s the dramatic energy to my need for peace and calm.

But she’s also my long-talk-loving, good-book-inhaling, open and honest sharing-of-the-soul craving daughter.

She’s so much like me, and she’s also so much like Ben. She keeps me from getting stuck in my own controlled, organized little world, and reminds me that music, imagination, and a little flamboyancy keeps life happier.

Yesterday was Anika’s birthday, and although we could not make it a national holiday, which would be her preference, we were able to have a great day celebrating our sweet girl.

As is the custom around her, we’ve put together a list of her favorite things right now, as a brand new 12-year-old:

Food: POTATOES, pancakes, fish, sushi

Things to Do: reading, playing dolls and Lego with Kaylia, writing, hanging out with friends

Books: any Warrior Cats books, Story’s End, The Inheritance cycle, Anne of Green Gables, Christy Miller series, The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Colour: Blue

What she wants to be when she grows up: Actress and Author

And oh, my goodness, has she ever changed from last year! I didn’t realize how much she’s grown up until I went back to her birthday post from 2014. It shouldn’t have surprised me so much – I can hardly buy clothes fast enough to keep up with her growth spurts, she borrows clothes from me, and I slip into her rubber boots when I need to quickly run out to the garden. She’s also become very responsible in the last year, and takes care of Kaylia and Everett almost like they were her own children….Almost.;)

I’m having so much fun watching her grow up and becoming the person she was created to be!

 

Photo credit: Morgan Braun