Kaleidoscopic Eclat

…the driving lessons are going well…

Nine.
Nine is all knees and elbows and energy.
Nine is blurry pictures because she won’t! stand! still!
Nine is all mouth and sass with a healthy dose of snark on the side.
Nine is smiles and witty retorts, and quiet questions.
Nine is also a lot of LOUD QUESTIONS.
Nine is scraped knees under pretty dresses
Nine is dirty hands and unbrushed, wild hair.
Nine is laughter, and tears - at the same time.
Nine is just a taste of the beauty still to come.

Nine is how many years since I had her, how many years I’ve loved her, how many years she’s blessed my life with trials and tribulations and laughter and joy.

Nine? Is beautiful.

Happy Birthday, Pup! Mama loves you more then you’ll ever understand - until you have your own Nine.

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Tomorrow is the pup’s birthday. She’ll officially be 9. NINE. and she’s my BABY and she’s just 366 days away from entering double digit birthdays! Oh. Em. Gee. *sigh*

TBF, he called me up to see if she had a problem with stories about spiders (No, though she does have a problem with REAL spiders in the bathtub when she wants to take a bath… then she’s all BROTHER SAVE ME and stuff…) because he was with his niece at a book signing, with Randie Sue Elliott for her new book, Spidey’s Human. He braved his OWN arachnophobia as there were giant spiders on the table and in the author’s hand, in order to get The Pup her own autographed copy! The pup LOVES books, and LOVES ones that are autographed (she carried around her copy of Sagwa I got her last summer for months - in fact, she just rediscovered it and carted it off to school again) so I knew she’d adore it!

Thus, when it arrived today (Hurray for priority mail!) and she checked the mail, and discovered a package with her name on it… I couldn’t force her to wait till tomorrow. I mean, I could have, but that would have been mean, even for me! So I let her open it right away:

Her reading has improved by leaps and bounds this year, since getting her into Mrs. W’s class. All of my kids had difficulties early on, but once they find that switch and things start making sense, there’s no stopping them - the older two read almost as much as I do now, and the Pup is well on her way to being the same way. (Trick for parents everywhere: “Sure, you can keep your light on a little bit past bed time - as long as you’re reading.” Works like a CHARM.) In fact, here she is reading the back cover so that you know what the book is about. She didn’t practice it first, and there’s a few mishaps and mispoken words in there, but all in all, I cannot BELIEVE the change from this time last year. I’m so proud! Now, you can be proud too! (shut up. My kid is so better then your kids. *g*)

Mah BAYBEE!

…that I only pick on the girls with the camera - he’s proof that I ATTEMPT to embarrass the boy and his friends as well. They’re just… faster.

See, The Boy - he got his bestest buddy (one of them) a job with him at McD’s. They’ve been working the same shift this week, so after school they come here, get dressed, then it’s off to work with the both of them. (Aw! MAH BOYS!)

So. Since I was picking on the girl with the camera, I tried to catch the boys. G just shook his head, while The Boy ducked. And then they ran. HARUMPH.

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So, my lil blog crush, Adri, he’s in the process of writing a story that involves a 13 year old girl and all the Angst that comes with it. I offered to send my thirteen year old to him so he’d have first hand experience with the Angst, but he paled and declined the offer. (read: ran away screaming!) Dammit.

So anyway, after The Girl returned from school today, high on sugar and accomplishment (in the Standardized Testing for the state - she received her scores today: Reading 75% over ‘norm’, Writing 15% over ‘norm’ and Math? 100% over norm! Mah Blond Baby is SMART!) - and took pictures. Lots of pictures. Until she wouldn’t let me anymore. (That’d be 11 pictures till she ran and hid. Giving me an easy dozen would have been… well, easy!)

SO! I give you the Many Faces of Mairiah.
I know. You’re so excited. I can feel it!

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