Having it all

Be prepared to hear a lot in the next few days about Sophie’s 5th birthday (which is Wednesday, November 16th).  I’m sorry, people, but I need to emote.

This birthday is a really big deal for me, as Sophie’s mom.  Because you see, it’s the first one she’s ever cared about.  The receptive part of Sophie’s speech delay had kept her from really understanding exactly what a birthday was.  Last year was the first year she really got it, but she was pretty shy then, and didn’t like being the center 0f attention, or being at parties and large gatherings. So, last year, we didn’t even really have a party.  Just a small, family-only gathering at my mom’s house. She opened her presents away from the group, in the dining room with just Bobby and me and my mom.  She just really was not into people staring at her while she did so!  We didn’t do singing, no candles, just a very low-key celebration.  She liked her gifts, but they were all things I had picked out because she hadn’t really grasped the idea that you could ask for things for your birthday, even.

But, oh, how a year has changed things.

Now she is so excited about her birthday party, her friends, her Hello Kitty cake, her pinata, and oh, the presents.  The presents, the presents, the presents.  As I mentioned a few days ago, she has already made quite the list of things she wants for her birthday and Christmas.  She got twenty bucks in an early birthday card from my Grandma yesterday and immediately wanted to go to Target and spend it.  (Which we did, as I am the indulgent mother).  Up and down the aisles of Target we strolled, Sophie pointing joyously to everything she saw, saying, “I want this for my birthday! I want this for my birthday! I want that, too!”  It’s so fun for me to see her so excited about stuff.  I know it’s just stuff, and it’s not that I want to raise a material girl, but the fact that she’s caught up and is acting in such an age-appropriate way about her birthday has me giddy.

She wants it all.  And because she finally wants it all, and because honestly, the child has worked her butt off in therapy an at home for the last 13 months, I want to give it to her. So I *may* have gone a wee bit overboard this year.  But I’ll try not to make a habit of it.

Because what she doesn’t know, but I know, when I look at her, is that she already has it all.  She’s all caught up, she’s where she needs to be.  She is sweet, smart, beautiful, and loved. She has it all.

And Sophie my girl, so do I. So do I.

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Thanks, Shannon, for the photo