Abbie at 7 years old

 

My sweet Abbie,

 

I can’t believe you are already 7 years old.  I think in my mind you might be 6 forever.  But you are growing up way too quickly and it’s exciting and sad all at the same time.  It truly seems like just yesterday daddy and I were in the hospital having you, and not having a clue how to be parents or what to expect when you were born.  I’m still not 100% sure we know how to be parents, but you are teaching us along the way, that’s for sure.

 

Of all 3 of our kiddos right now, you are definitely our challenging one, but probably also the most rewarding at times too.  You have SUCH a strong personality and it’s hard to keep up with you at times.  You have a very distinct way you want things most of the time and if things don’t go your way, watch out!  We are still working on getting you to let go of the control you ALWAYS have to have and to not flip out when things (mainly Ben) don’t go your way.  You like to be in charge at all times and when Ben decides he doesn’t want to go along with your games anymore, all hell breaks loose.  We’re hoping you never lose your leadership skills and are always feisty like you are now, just maybe in different circumstances.

You are our most creative kiddo too.  Your imagination never ends and we love that.  I think you’ve pretty much taught Ben how to be creative and use his imagination as well, and there is always a story line brewing in your head.  You are also my huge helper.  I’ve given you a lot of responsibility as far as helping around the house and with your brothers, and you seem to thrive on it.  You love to help and you love to get your lists of things to do completed so you can watch a show.  You are incredibly independent and a very eager learner, which is a great combination.  You LOVE to help with Jamison and you are such a good big sister to him.  He pretty much follows you anywhere and watches you all the time.  You are always giving him hugs and kisses and telling him how cute he is.  You say multiple times a day “He makes me grit my teeth because he’s just so darn cute!”.  =) I am so excited to see how you are with your little sister too.  You talk about her all the time and frequently draw pictures of you and her together.  You also ask LOTS of questions about how she’s going to get here – what I’m going to wear when I have her, what they do with her afterwards, when you’ll get to see her, how long you do skin to skin after birth, etc.   I’m not sure who’s more excited about her arrival – daddy and me or you!

 

 

You love school, thank God.  You are eager to go every day and you love your teacher Ms. Wilson (2nd grade) and you talk about your friends all the time.  You are our social butterfly and you love to be surrounded by friends.  You are reading very well now and you love to do math and I would guess you are probably at the top of your class in both since we worked so much over the summer with you on both.  You’re in size 7-8 clothes now and you’re wearing size 2 shoes, and you are rough on all your clothes.  You play pretty hard, which is good, but kind of expensive.  You weigh around 50lbs and you’re about 51” tall.  Our tall, skinny girl.

 

You challenge me on a daily basis and you make me really reflect on who I am and who I want to become.  You have taught me more about life than anyone else, even though you are currently completely unaware of that fact.  I love you fiercely and I’m so glad that you are mine.  You’ll always be my little pippers.

 

Love,

Your mama