Annie's 9th Birthday

Every time one of the kids has a birthday, it feels like my birthday except better since I'm not the one who's another year older.😊 I remember the agony and the joy of bringing them into the world, and marvel at how much they and I have changed since then. The kids themselves see each birthday as a magical milestone, a precise line between their new age and the last. Annie asked me the day before what time she'd been born. I told her 5:23 a.m. and she nodded, satisfied to know that first thing in the morning of the 19th, she would in fact be nine years old.

I did not sleep in Saturday morning; I got up at the usual time of 7 at the request of my new nine-year-old, so she didn't have to wait any longer to open her presents. She was overjoyed with the roller skates and jump rope that her daddy and Delaney had picked out for her. She ran to them and gave them hugs after opening them. Then she opened the Converse sneakers that she knew I'd picked out, and ran over to give me my hug. I thought it was funny how she'd kept track of exactly what came from whom, instead of thinking of her presents as from both parents. She misses nothing. She'd already seen the gift bag on the highest shelf of my closet and asked if she could open it first thing in the morning. (True, I hadn't made much effort to hide it.) She also knew what her father and sister were up to when they went on an errand the night before by themselves. I'm not raising a fool!

Annie has never rollerskated so safely.

Later in the morning the girls and I gathered up our birthday supplies and headed out for Annie's painting party with the girls in her class.

She had an incident when her hair went in the paint, and I said, "Annie's hair is always going into everything." (Especially her dinner) She was a fan of having green ends and didn't want to wash it out.

These two were the first done with their paintings and just hovered around the cake until the other girls were done and it was time to sing. Of course they did.🙄

Tim picked up Annie's dinner of choice, sushi, early in the afternoon so it would be there waiting for us when we got home from Mass. Annie had two spicy tuna rolls, and maybe some ramen noodles and miso soup. I didn't notice much because I was too busy feasting on all the sushi and cutting up things for Joey.

It had been decided days before that we would roast s'mores that night, but when the weather took a turn for the worse, the girls got really pouty at the idea of taking a rain check. I would have said too bad, but Tim's way nicer than I am. When the rain took a break he went ahead and made a fire in the wet backyard. Everyone was happy.

That was that, another birthday in the books. I am grateful on her birthday and always, for the gift of Annalise Elizabeth in our lives. I can't wait to see what her last year in single digits holds for her.