Momedy: Happy birthday Princess Caroline!!

First things first. While I was gone, on January 22nd my beautiful only daughter Caroline Grace aka Gracie turned 6! She is such an angel and I love her so much. I often marvel at her capability, maturity and huge heart. She is artistic and free spirited yet practical and responsible. She is kind and she has integrity. I have observed unnoticed many times as she declined to join in a group or with a friend who may be tormenting or gossiping about another. I know that she will never be one of the "mean girls" even if it means she is ostracized or lonely at times. She knows who she is and is quietly self assured. As I have mentioned before she could probably take over running our household at a moment's notice, and do a better job then I.

It warms me so much when she tells me several times a day that she loves me so much that she "does not even know what to do!". She often accompanies these declarations with what I have dubbed the "lip clamp". It is a facial expression that my sister and I have made since we were children when the extent of our love or affection for something made us want to squeeze it unsuitably hard. (Think Lennie from Of Mice and Men) We fold in our lips and squeeze them together until we can get a grip on ourselves. She does this when she tells me about her love for me, and I can't think what I have done to deserve it but it touches me deeply. I can't wait to see her do the lip clamp over my grandchildren one day. Of course, I will be doing it alongside of her.

At this time in her life, Gracie spends most of her time creating works of art as gifts for her family. She makes amazing things every day out of old shoeboxes, pieces of paper, cereal boxes and the like. She has made a soccer field for Benjamin, a car complete with steering wheel and seats for Aaron and many little boxes, purses, hearts and portraits for me. One of her other favourite things to do is to surprise her brothers or us by cleaning up our rooms and decorating them with artwork.

She is beautiful and feminine and she loves being a girl but she is not vain or wimpy. She will get down and dirty, play her heart out on the soccer field and dance very daintily at ballet. She is the most tender little mommy to all her babies and when you go into her bedroom you will find that each one has been taken care of, swaddled in a blanket and placed in its spot for a nap. Sometimes her bedroom will look like a hospital nursery with them all wrapped up in rows.

She weeps when her brothers get into trouble and begs for them to be let off from whatever consequence has been meted out. She panics if they are straggling behind when we are out, and is always first to let us know when they are not with us. She is the best sister a brother could ever have, the best daughter a parent could have and I feel so blessed to know that I have a built in best friend for life. I love you Princess! Have a wonderful year being 6!

Growing up Gracie: