10 years in part A

Dear Annnie,

I have a confession to make to you on your 10^th birthday. When I was pregnant with you and your sister, I wasn’t that excited about the idea of giving birth to twins. God brought you both to our family when your brother was still very much a baby; and having three children under 2 years old just didn’t sound that fun to me.

But really, God knew what He was doing when he planned for you and your sister to join us on the same day. You have been a joy since the beginning. A fun loving, hard working, sweetie of a girl. And I get a little jealous when it comes time for me to share you with friends and family. I don’t know what I’ll do if you ever decide to switch over to the public school. I’m pretty sure I might have to climb in your backpack and stalk you all day.

This has been the year of the horses for both of you girls. You’ve taken to bringing us a report on the neighbor’s horses when you go out to get the mail each afternoon. I think you volunteer for the task just so you can take a moment at the fence and spy on them. It brought so much joy to my heart to watch you interacting with the horses when we took our trip out west before Christmas.

So ten is sort of a big birthday, a gateway if you will. I definitely see the teen years coming in you. The way you roll your eyes and groan at me. It’s amusing now, though I don’t imagine it will always be so.  But I also love what I think I see you becoming.

I can only hope that you’ll always be the girl who loves having dates with your parents, and grandparents. The girl with inseparable best friends from dance class. The girl who can jump in and make dinner when I’m out and about and everyone else is hungry.  And the girl who seeks fashion advice from her (rather unfashionable) mother. Please don’t ever figure out that I’m clueless when it comes to clothing.

I love you more today than I did yesterday.

Mom