she's nine

I've watched her grow...


from exquisite newborn...

to delightful baby...

to challenging toddler...

to exuberant preschooler...


to precocious little girl...

to sassy big girl...

to sweet winsome child...



And now, here she is, all of nine years old, caught in that in-between stage of a funny prickly tween.

I remember holding that exquisite newborn and trying to imagine what she'd be like in a year, or two, or ten. I'd do the same quiet nights when I'd rock her to sleep as a toddler or stroke her back as a restless preschooler. Despite having come to know that newborn and all her moods and reactions, I would always come up blank. I couldn't look into her future and see the person she'd one day be. I still can't. But I can say this. At nine she is exquisite, delightful, challenging, exuberant, precocious, sweet, sassy, prickly, and funny. She is all of these and more. Unfolding the secrets of who she is and who she will be one birthday at a time.