Happy Birthday Little Miss

Little Miss has turned 7 so it's time for a birthday post.

Little Miss the day she got her hamster "Theodore"

For her birthday, she chose to go miniature golfing with the family and then watch a movie.  She decided to watch Harry Potter 1.  She was a little frustrated with the golfing at first because she didn't want to hold the club the right way because it was too complicated, but the ball didn't go where she wanted it to go when she held the club the wrong way.  She got it figured out toward the end and liked improving.  Bud was, of course, very diligent about keeping score and trying to "win".  He did pretty well, but he is sure competitive :-)  Spice insisted she was just playing "for fun" and refused to keep score.  Bazinks was surprisingly good, and made several holes in just 2 tries.

She loves to sit and figure songs out on the piano - usually by ear, but sometimes by reading them.

She picked Subway for dinner and then we came home and watched the movie.  I must admit that every time I watch a movie I feel less and less like watching another one.  We had a good time though and no one has complained of nightmares so I won't go into all my reasons for not loving it since I would just sound negative and no-fun.

Don't ask me why there is cleaner next to her cake, it was a busy day.
The pretty girl in the background is my brother's girlfriend whom he needs to just marry already.

The next day was her actual birthday so she opened presents (clothes, a little purse, some hamster toys,  a pretty CTR ring, some hair clips and some PEZ).  Later, my parents, my younger brother and his girlfriend came over and we made our own pizzas, had cake and ice cream, and played games.  She seemed to have a great time and she milked her "no chores" day for all it was worth.  I asked Spice and Bud to clean her zone for her in the morning, Little Miss had several things in there she hadn't put away, but they went and cleaned them without complaining and then Little Miss would say something like, "Bud, make sure you put that on my bed because I'm going to use it later."  It was kind of funny, but they were good sports about it and didn't tell her to go put her things away herself. 

This was late last month and the Christmas tree was half-way taken down.
Little Miss made a train and she and Bazinks played on it for hours.

Little Miss is a very sensitive and sweet little girl.  She has a lot of empathy for everyone around her and it is not uncommon to find her shedding tears when someone else is having a hard time.  She loves taking care of her baby brother even though he's getting too big for her to try to hold and he often just gets mad at her when she tries to comfort him.  I think she has an especially hard time when someone teases her because she would never try to hurt someone's feelings on purpose so she thinks that a person must really dislike her to do something like that.  We're working with her to understand that people see things differently and sometimes just think it's fun to play that way (we're also working with the culprits to understand that teasing is not okay...)

Playing games on her birthday. 

I'm often impressed with the things Little Miss chooses to do.  She is often practicing the piano, reading to Bazinks, or just playing whatever the boys want to play.  Lately it's Harry Potter (she's Hermoine or Ginny) and Chronicles of Narnia (she's Lucy), but often it's Lord of the Rings (she's Eowynn) or Star Wars (Princess Leah).  She also surprises me with what she chooses to read.  Last month she read Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit and a biography of George Washington along with other shorter stories in between.  She thinks very deeply about things and I love to hear the way her mind processes things.  She's very matter-of-fact about things and loves to play on words when they don't seem to say the exact thing you are trying to say or if they could mean something differently.  "On the refrigerator?  I think you mean in the refrigerator, because you couldn't really put that on the refrigerator..." or such comments.

She loves to sing.

I am so grateful for my little girl. She brings a spirit of love and caring to our home and she sure is a fun little snuggle-bug to cuddle.