And She’s Seven!

Yup, you read that right. We have a seven-year-old in the house! Wow, it seems like just a couple years ago that Matt and I were leaving the hospital with our little girl, wondering if the hospital was truly going to let us leave with her. They obviously had no idea how ignorant we were about babies. But they did let us leave, we somehow managed to figure it all out (for the most part), and here we are seven years later with our beautiful, sweet, smart Mikaela Lyn.

Mikaela has been counting down to her seventh birthday for over a month now. Every morning she would wake up and exclaim, “Only __ more days till my birthday!” So needless to say, on the morning of the 4th there was a very excited little girl in our house. At first, she wanted to stay home to celebrate, but then quickly realized she would get to share her excitement with friends at school. So, she high-stepped it into school as a new 7-year-old! Chance, Trinity and I met her for lunch and got to experience eating with 21 first-graders, who we then proceeded to get all hopped up on cupcakes. I’m sure their teacher would have thanked me if she could have. When we picked her up after school, our plans were to go to a near-by McDonalds to play on their indoor playland. But the weather seemed to be just perfect for a day at the playground, so we changed courses and went to a great one near our house. However, somewhere between school and the park, the temperature seemed to drop about 10 degrees and it was not as warm as Momma had thought. (Maybe it was the birthday excitement that got the best of me.) Anyway, kids never seem to mind the cold and wind anyway, so we braved the chilly weather and enjoyed our afternoon at the park.

I had asked Mikaela several days earlier what she would like for dinner on her birthday. She quickly responded with, “Can we go OUT to eat?” (That’s my girl.) So I told her yes, anywhere she wanted. She decided Red Lobster was the place to be, so once Daddy made it home, we took off and enjoyed stuffing ourselves with crab legs, shrimp, lobster and more. Then, of course, we had to top off our day with cake and presents at home.

Trinity just kept asking, “Mine?” She’s had a hard time during these last 2 birthday celebrations when her brother/sister was getting presents and she wasn’t. Mikaela was a sweet big sister though and let her help open a few of the gifts.

A new baseball bat and pink soccer ball

And the Zhu-Zhu pets she’s been asking for since Christmas!

Once again, she got entirely too many presents. Everything from money to clothes to toys to jewelry. This little girl doesn’t know the meaning of the word “need”. I just keep telling her how extremely lucky she is to be loved by so many people who want to do nothing but make her happy.

About six or seven months ago, Mikaela asked us if she could get her ears pierced. Matt and I told her that when she turned seven she would be able to. This is one of the reasons she had been counting down the days for so long. Our plan was to go the day of her birthday, before dinner. However, many people had told her to make sure they did both ears at once so that it wouldn’t hurt as much. And I made the rookie mistake of assuring her they could do this. But, of course, as things go, there was only one girl working (in each of the 3 places we went). I tried to convince her she could do it, but she was dead-set on waiting until there were two girls. So, the girl at Icing looked at the schedule and said that there would be two girls there the next day right after school. She decided she’d wait it out. We went immediately after school the next day and sure enough, there was only one girl. Well, of course, the other girl had left early that day. The girl that was there though was great and assured Mikaela she would do a great job and it would only be a pinch. Mikaela really wanted those ears pierced, so she decided she’d do it. Yay! First step: choose her favorite earring. It was a tough one, but the winner was a pretty little flower with diamond-looking petals. Cute.

Waiting nervously. She jumped out of the chair once and quietly said, “I’m scared.” I told her I understood but I knew that she could do it. The waiting was definitely the worst part.

She did great! I think she had anticipated it hurting so very much that when it actually happened, it wasn’t as bad as she had imagined. She barely flinched and was all smiles afterwards. It was pretty cute, she just kept asking, “Are you proud of me?” “I’m so proud of myself!” “I think Daddy’s going to be proud.” She LOVES her new bling.

This year, in lieu of having big birthday bashes, we let the kids choose one fun activity they would like to go do as a family. They could choose anything they could think of. Mikaela, being the water-lover that she is, kept it simple and just wanted to go swimming. Unfortunately, on the weekend we planned on doing this, Trinity got the stomach flu. And then the next weekend we went on a little family ski trip. (I’ll blog about that later.) So, we had to wait for this part of her celebration. However, when we did finally get to go, the kids had a blast. I’m thinking that they may truly be part fish.

Mikaela truly is a wonderful little girl. We have been blessed as parents to have such an easy-going, happy, carefree child. Of course, she is a girl and she can already definitely give out some sass every now and then; but Matt and I have had it pretty easy with her. She is a loving, caring older sister to both Chance & Trinity. They are all such great friends and I pray that their relationships will continue to grow as they grow up. I know that God has some very special plans for this little girl and I look forward to seeing her grow into the wonderful young lady no doubt she will become.

Happy birthday, my dear Mikaela! We love you very, very much!