Eight is Great! (or the post otherwise known as....I'm nearly a month late with her birthday post!)

Anika turned eight on December 19th. Yeah, I know, today is January 11th, but somehow my intentions to write a proper birthday post for my nearly perfect firstborn haven't come into fruition until now. (I was actually thinking that I did this baby planning thing all wrong - who the heck has a baby on either side of the Christmas holiday season?) Because Ani's birthday is so close to Christmas, we usually plan a party almost two months in advance so we can get on people's very busy holiday calendars. This year she told me that she didn't want a silly party - she wanted to go to the movies with her friends. I agreed and said I would take them. Then one night as I'm tucking her into bed, approximately December 14th, she sits up suddenly and with a huge toothy grin says, "Guess what, mama? I'm going to have a shopkins birthday party and I invited all my friends!"

Say wha?!

I took a deep breath and tried to explain, after she frowned from my look of shock and obvious non-excitement, that yes she deserves a birthday party, but since we didn't have the time to plan a big soiree how about just some cake and snacks and friends at the park? And then, in her typical Anika fashion, she squeezed my hand and said yes, that's exactly what she was thinking, and can we have chocolate cake?

I absolutely adore this girl. Not sure how she is 8 years old already, and sometimes I feel twinges of guilt because I know her socially gifted soul is sometimes asked to be older than she really needs to be. She helps me with Roman; she helps to calm down Reni (when they're not reenacting a WWF fight, that is); for goodness sake she even helps calm me down. She's always reminding me to slow down, take a deep breath, smile....sometimes I go in to look at her when she's sleeping, or watch her reading a book, or spy on her when she's playing in her room, and my heart wants to burst with pride. Sometimes she makes me want to slap her, sure, but mostly she is the best girl in the universe, the kid I can't believe comes with 23 of my own chromosomes, the one I watch with wonder and amazement. She is destined for great things and she is my very own Amazing Anika. It's gonna be hard to have to hand her over to the world someday. In the meantime, world, check it out!