Lately you’ve been asking if you’re 4 yet, and now I can tide
you over by saying you’re halfway there! Tomorrow’s 3 ½ birthday plans include going
to the beach if the weather holds out, and giving you your first “big girl”
bike after daddy puts it together. You rode it so proudly when we tested it out
at Toys R Us the other day, sitting tall and rounding the aisles on the store
model’s wobbly training wheels. “Look, mommy…look, daddy…I’m doing it!” you
said.
You are growing into such a poised and assured little girl, understanding
the world a little more each day. Recently I took you for your first pedicure
and you sat in the chair with your back perfectly straight, body perfectly
still, as you took everything in. You didn’t say a word the whole time but you
kept glancing back and forth between my feet and yours as they were being
pampered, big brown eyes glowing with wonder, a subtle smile on your lips.
You are understated for the most part, but sometimes you
have moments of pure theatricality that come out of nowhere and make us do a
double take. Picture yourself standing in front of your musical princess castle
in your room, belting out a soulful rendition of Princess Tiana’s “Almost There,”
with a hip jutted out and a hand towards the heavens like a mini gospel singer.
You love to sing, and I know I’m biased as your mommy, but I
think you’re a natural. Sometimes you switch up the melody of popular
songs to create pleasing variations, and when I ask you where that came from
you say, “I’m just doing it in my own voice.” Your favorites are Disney
princess songs, but you also like to sit at your small piano and work on “originals,”
closing your eyes and feeling the music.
While you’re looking and acting more like a big girl every
day, certain little moments remind me that you still possess shades
of “baby”—like when you refuse to sleep in your own bed or give up your nightly
milk. Or when you cling to my leg at parties and turn mute in front of strangers.
Or when we enrolled you in soccer and you
preferred to sit on my lap sipping juice instead of kicking the ball down the field,
drill style. (Let’s never speak of it again and just stick with swimming and gymnastics, shall we?)
My favorite moments with you are the little ones. “Get in
your spot, mommy,” you say, “and I’ll get in my spot.” We sit side by side on
my bed, and look for games and YouTube videos on my laptop. You put your head
on my shoulder and I notice that your hair feels kind of like YOU – half smooth and
polished, half rough and wild. “I love you, mommy,” you say. “I
love you, too, best friend,” I say. And I mean it.
I can't wait to see Gilly riding her bike!!!!!!!
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