I cannot believe this is my last year of Leah being single digits. The first time I looked at this picture of her cake, I thought, "I put her candle on upside down!" NINE. Nine. How is it possible? This year Leah had a totally normal, uneventful birthday. The past 2 years have been high stress days for the adults in our little family. This year was much more normal. This year she woke up, opened presents, went swimming at Colony, went to dinner at Olga's, checked out the class lists at school, got an ice cream cake, played outside with the neighbors past dark, and stayed up late reading in bed. Completely perfect.
Leah continues to love reading. She always has a stack of books with her. She's totally quiet in the car because she's always reading. She reads before bed every night and comes into our room 75% of the time to either ask for more time or tell us about how exciting her book is. She's thrilled that she already got a book order from school. This summer she read and loved the entire "Land of Stories" series, the "new" Baby-Sitters Club, the graphic novels "Smile", "Sisters", and "Drama". We were at the library often.
Lili excels in dance and gymnastics. This summer she advanced TWO levels in gymnastics. Now she is in Silver. There is only one class offered that is higher than where she is now (Gold). Come Spring, she will need to choose to either join the team at gymnastics or dance, or staying rec for both. She hates the idea of choosing between the two, but also wants to get "really good" at both. She loves our dance school's production number, but she also really likes watching the big kids do flips on the bars and beam in gymnastics.
For Leah's birthday, she got the entire collection of "The Land of Stories", a marshmallow/squishy pillow, some new clothes and earrings, a new journal, some sport headbands, and a science kit. She was thrilled. Gone are the days of "twirly dresses" being her favorite. While she still wear dresses (and looks amazing in them), she seems to prefer shorts and shirts most days now. She loves Justice and I begrudgingly bought her some clothes from there for her birthday. I can't get over how low quality they are. Leah LOVES having super long hair. She gets so upset with the idea of cutting it. It now touches the top of her butt. She would love her hair to be even blonder. For Taylor Swift, we dyed her hair purple(ish) and she thought it was the best thing ever. She loves to wear dangly earrings and gets a kick out of changing her earrings more often now.
Leah is a great big sister. Without ever asking her, she will seek out Teddy if he is fussy or crying and try to help him. Her and Juliet are total best friends. This summer there were many sleepovers in each other's rooms in different types of "super forts" that they made together or with friends. While they occasionally bicker or fight, they get upset when I separate them. Leah also really enjoys one-on-one time with us. A few weeks ago Juliet went over to a friend's house. I offered to invite over a friend of Leah's, and she said she would rather just be with me. We went to a farm stand and to Bushes and she kept telling me how much fun she was having with just me. Leah's made some pretty close friends this year and we had more play dates than ever this summer.
Leah's getting closer to being a "tween" and we already notice some attitude. We remind Leah several times a day that she doesn't know everything yet. She never used to argue back, and now she is starting to. We are hoping that she goes easy on us over her teenage years. She's getting more interested in adult shows. A few months ago she really wanted to watch "Poltergeist" for some reason. We told her how scary it was, but she insisted. She watched it one afternoon when I was at a party with Juliet. She wanted Chris on the same level of the house, but that was about it. We tried freaking her out afterward, but she was never scared. She was asking me about my favorite books as a kid and I was telling her about "Alex: The Life of a Child" which I was obsessed with when I was a little older than her. She made me check it out of the library. I was also telling her about some Ann Rule book, and she really wanted to read it. We will see about Alex for now (I'm going to reread it first), but try to hold off on Ann Rule for a few years. The girls love watching the shows "Mia and Me", "Just Add Magic", and now "Anne with an E" which we are watching as a family.
Leah is kind and understanding, and she is still an old soul. It's so interesting to watch her and Juliet together, because even though they are so close, they are just so different in their approaches to different situations.
This summer Leah made more friendship bracelets than I can count. We made a lot of slime, too. We stayed busy at the pool and with friends. She LOVED Real Life Farm and begged us everyday to take her early and not pick her up until as close to 6:00 as possible. It was a great summer.
I'm so excited to see what this year brings. She got a great teacher and was lucky enough to have several friends in her class this year. It's going to be a great year! We love her so, so much.
Just for fun, here are some diving board pictures I took at Colony on Leah's birthday. This was the first day Juliet went off the diving board!
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