Happy 11th birthday Princess!

I’m a little bit in awe that my youngest child turned 11 today. Especially as I sit here writing this watching you swim with your brothers in a hotel swimming pool. It’s amazing to me how much you’ve grown over the past few years.

This is going to be a year of changes for you

This coming year many of your friends will make the transition from child to teenager. They won’t want to play with dolls or toys. They’ll talk about wearing make up, and boys. I know this idea is crazy to you, but it might well happen to you too.

Of course, you could take after your Mom and spend much of your teen years in complete denial that you are growing up. I rather think that is the most likely outcome.

#happybirthday little one.

A post shared by Ticia (@ticiam) on Nov 16, 2017 at 5:14pm PST

As I told you at our family birthday party, I’ve given you The Guide to Being a Girl and this coming year we are going to work through it, a chapter a week. I look forward to the teen years with you, well I do when I’m not dreading the mood swings I’m pretty sure you’re going to go through (if these past few months have been any indication, the two of us will drive each other crazy, we may be a little too alike).

You get more responsibilities and more freedoms this year. I expect a lot from you, and every time I do, you surprise me with all you are capable of.

You are an amazing young woman

Oh my. That’s a lot of shaving cream. #ihsnet #playmatters #homeschool365

A post shared by Ticia (@ticiam) on Nov 14, 2017 at 11:13am PST

Yes, you do have some rough edges, particularly in dealing with your brothers, but you are amazing. You are giving and loving, and when someone is hurt you want to fix them.

You go into scary situations and you help. A few weeks ago we went to a nursing home and you went up to and talked with the residents there and made a point to talk to the veterans about how they served and thanked them for their service.

There’s a lot of adults who are not good at that. Yet you did that.

You ask a lot of questions.

That is good. It means you want to understand and to know. That is a sign of a growing mind, and someone who’s going to do great things someday.

You drive me crazy.

At least once a week I text your Aunt Tara complaining about your stubbornness. Or some other trait I share with you, and I pretty much always get back, “What your daughter is stubborn/ strong-willed/other synonyms for stubborn? Shocking.” I don’t think she’s really shocked. But it helpful to hear someone reassure me.

This year our #ahg troop is working with Wreaths Across America to lay wreaths on the graves of soldiers. We are working to have a wreath for every grave in the #atx gravesite Right now there are only 300 wreaths purchased and the site has 1200 graves. If you’d like to support our troop and this charity, I’ve got the link in my profile or you can copy the link from here. https://wreaths.fastport.com/donateLocation.html?page=45231&relate=44702

A post shared by Ticia (@ticiam) on Nov 20, 2017 at 9:06am PST

You have grown so much as a leader and in your willingness to do things you don’t want to do. This past year your American Heritage Girl Troop has moved to a girl led troop. You were assigned games and songs for your role. Each week you pick a younger girl to choose the songs and games your troop will do.  You have to keep track of who has done what, and if you won’t be there, you need to let the people know ahead of time what role they will have.

You don’t like to play games,

So that role was a real challenge for you. Yet, you’ve been doing it with aplomb, and your leaders have complimented you more than once for how hard you’re working.

You are an amazing girl Little One, and I can’t wait to see what happens this coming year.

Sigh completing this on my laptop while traveling means I can’t get a good current picture….. All those Instagram ones are very silly. Oh well, I’ll come back later and add it in once my computer figures out if it it’s going to import the picture I took of my suddenly very grown up looking little girl.