Seven

Today, our baby girl turns seven years old.  Seven!  I can hardly believe it.  When I look at her, I realize that those chubby, chubby baby cheeks have disappeared and that she is evolving into such a beautiful girl.  Her loveliness takes my breath away sometimes.  She is still a child filled with contradictions - wonderfully and gloriously happy, unless she is steaming mad (and she works up a good mad); loves to be cuddled and snuggled, or keeping us at a distance; incredibly well-behaved, until she works up a stunning tantrum; hard-working, unless she wants to be lazy and then nothing can motivate her.  She does not like being disciplined and is often extremely frustrated with her teacher, who keeps her strongly in check (much to our delight).  She hates studying her spelling words (especially the optional challenge words which we consider to be mandatory), yet once she puts her mind to it, she always gets 104 on her spelling tests.
Above all, she adores being the center of attention.  She literally blooms with the adoration of others.  She can name for you each of the boys in her class that "love" her, pouting a bit about those who have yet to tell her.  She continues to amaze us with her intellect - for some reason, she seems to fly under the radar when it comes to her brains, yet even her "strict" teacher has told us how very, very smart she is.
Every day, Emily delights us -  yes, even when she infuriates us.  She says the most hilarious things, does the most wonderful things, and so fills me up with love that there are days when I think that I might burst from it.

Happy Seventh Birthday to our sweet baby girl!!!

 

Some things about Emily.  If you want to see what has changed over the last year, check out last year's birthday post.