Seven

As of yesterday, I have a seven-year-old daughter. Seven. It amazes me that a.) I'm old enough to HAVE a seven-year-old, b.) that she's in second grade, c.) that she's actually BEEN HERE with us for seven entire years, and d.) she came from the two of us out of love from two tiny little cells, seven years and nine months ago.

She is amazing. She's funny, smart, sassy, fresh, quick on her feet, caring, generous, kind, silly, and she's a great big sister. I find myself so impressed with her every day, as I learn something new about my own daughter.

She had an activity for school where she had to explain which word she didn't understand, how she figured out what it meant, the meaning of the word, and then use it in a sentence appropriately. Here's a sampling, and I'm using HER spellings and punctuation. I was just blown away reading this homework, where the teacher kept putting comments such as "EXCELLENT!" Of course I already knew that my eldest daughter is excellent. How could she not be excellent?

Homework Excerpts:
The word I did not understand was "loom." I found out what the word meant by looking in the sentence. Loom meant "a big machine that makes cloth or thread." I would use this word in a sentence like this, "At Northwest Park in 1st grade they used a loom to make thread and we twisted the thread and made wrist bracelets."

When I was reading I came to a word I didn't know. The word was foreign. That word was followed by the word languages. I looked for clues in the sentence and I figured out that foreign means something that belongs to a place or country other than mine. Spanish is a foreign language to me.

The word that I needed clarified was murmured. The word murmured means speaking in a low voice. I found that out by looking it up in the dictionary. When my mom said I was in trouble so I had to go to my room, I murmured back O.K.

While I was reading I came across the world Motives. As I read on it said it meant for a person's reason for committing a crime. If I put it in a sentence, it would sound like this: My brother's motives for taking some money from my parent's room without permission was he wanted a new game.

In the book it said "Well let's go a-Viking." It is figurative language to say "go a-Viking." It means a person could act or become a Viking. The person would believe in the mighty Thor who is the god of thunder and understood the language of Vikings.

Yesterday was not only her seventh birthday, but it was special to her for a whole other reason. She lost her third tooth. Lower bottom, left. She got $2 from the Tooth Fairy for it. What amazed me was how tiny that tooth was, and how out of place it looked in her mouth before it fell out, especially next to two adult teeth (lower front). It's tiny, discolored, well worn, smooth, and TINY.

It really drove home for me just how much she's growing up, further and further from being a baby every single day. She has an adorable little gap in between her teeth with an impressive and somewhat gross hole where the tooth used to be. I swear the hole seems much larger than it should be for such a tiny tooth that came out of it.

Sunday, we noticed the the gums where the tooth was all wiggly and gross was bruising, and knowing the risk of infection, especially since it was bleeding, we tried to encourage her to let us help her pull it out. She wasn't having any of that business, informing us (loudly through tears) that she didn't care if it was there until she turned 40, it was going to have to come out without being pulled. As it turns out, she just pressed her own knuckle against it when she came home from school, and it popped right out. Now we just have to wait for the other tooth, same position, on the other side. It's very close to falling out, too, and now that she knows the excitement of having a tooth come out without help (we had to help her pull the first two teeth) I'm sure she'll work that 4th tooth until it comes out. My guess is by Friday.

We celebrated her birthday with a picnic at my Mom's house on Sunday. My brothers and their S/O's were there, as were my grandparents. I made a cake, made by special request from Juliana. I also made cupcakes, that we brought to my MIL's to celebrate there too. It was a great day for her, and even though her actual birthday fell on a school day, she enjoyed Monday too. She was practically floating on air when I tucked her into bed last night, and I got one of the best kisses and hugs combo I've ever received as a Mom. I told Juliana about the day she was born, and how at EXACTLY seven years earlier that minute I was breastfeeding her and singing to her when she was only a few hours old. I told her how I fell in love with her the very instant I held her for the first time. I told her how beautiful she was, but was still nothing compared to how beautiful she is now. We put her newly fallen out tooth in a plastic baggy, and she nearly lost the tooth taking it out to examine it. We pinned the baggy to the wall right above her head. When she woke up this morning, there were 2 single dollar bills pinned to the wall where the tooth baggy was. She was thrilled, and brought her newly earned money to school for Show and Tell.

Because as smart and funny as she is, she's still a small seven year old girl who believes in the Tooth Fairy and magic. She's a paradox and she's wonderful and I'm so very proud of her. I love her beyond words.