Lana just turned 8, and I can’t believe my littlest girl is already turning into a big kid! We don’t have her well check until January, so I’ll fill in her stats when I have them.
**ETA: We had her well check on February 17, 2021, so here are the official 8-year stats:
- Height: 53.5″ (86%)
- Weight: 62 lbs. (62%)
- BMI: 15.2 kg/m2 (34%)
- Blood pressure: 98/55
She had an absolutely amazing day, and it made my heart SO happy to see her skipping around all day saying, “This is the best day ever! Thank you so much for my birthday!”
She got a boatload of presents, which was fine by me because I feel like last year she kind of got jipped. Her favorites were this awesome glass pen that Ryan got her that came with glitter ink, ocean kinetic sand (thank you, Auntie Mer!), and a smart watch (thank you, Grandma!).
A week or so earlier I’d asked what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday this year, and she requested marble. Little did I know that required combining 2 different batters, but I figured it out and it actually turned out pretty great. I made a double batch of buttercream frosting and it’s a good thing I did, because we ended up making it a double-decker cake and used every last bit. Lana came up with a dia de los muertos skull design and decoration scheme, and it turned out awesome! She helped crack the eggs, cut out the skull shape, and frost with the piping bags, and she was SO excited about it. It was delicious!
Her birthday fell on an asynchronous day for school, so we didn’t have to worry about watching the clock to sign on to live class meetings. This allowed us to just follow a fun birthday schedule. She opened a bunch of presents in the morning, saving just a couple for later in the day after Daddy got home from work. They did their school work until about 10:00 that morning, then we headed out for a couple “field trip” errands. We picked up school supplies for D and M, picked up our online grocery order, stopped to take her picture in the beautiful frame her Girl Scout troop leaders made this summer for their bridging ceremony from Daisies to Brownies that never got to be used because of the pandemic, then we checked out a really cool house that’s right down on the edge of Lake Michigan and has a yard full of sculptures. The woman who lived there was an artist known as “The Witch of Fox Point,” and the kids were studying her that week in art. It’s a pretty cool sight to see, and they thought it was fun to see something from their studies in real life.
Then they finished up their lessons during the afternoon, Ryan took them to the park when he got home because it was the only beautiful day in a week full of rain, I picked up her requested sushi for dinner, and she opened the rest of her presents that night. Talk about the perfect way to celebrate a birthday! She was in heaven. We even sang “Happy Birthday” to her twice, because the video camera malfunctioned during the first rendition.
Lana is an absolute wonder. She is still the most creative person I know, and her fairy spirit is alive and well. She is loving her virtual classroom this year and is doing a great job in school. She just had her first play date of the year, inviting one of the girls from her class who goes to the other elementary school over to play outside for an afternoon. Another girl in her class sent her her first chain letter a few weeks ago, a sticker club, so she’s enjoyed mailing letters to her friends and getting stickers in the mail as well. I just love how her eyes light up and she starts literally bouncing up and down when she’s excited about something, and I never say no when she wants to read me something she’s written or show me a new background on her computer for school. The other night she wanted me to carry her to bed, and she said, “I want you to be able to carry me forever.” I do, too, my love; oh, how I do, too.
Happy 8th birthday, Lana Marie! Words can’t even express how much I love you, and you make us prouder by the day. It still takes me a couple tries to get you to hear me when I need to you do something and you are the queen of shoving toys wherever you want to put them instead of actually cleaning up, but I now know that’s just you, it’s not deliberate misbehavior. I will never, ever forget the night we brought you home from the hospital – the early darkness of a fall evening, which I usually hate, could do nothing to dampen the elation I felt having another baby girl in the house. Don’t ever let this world take your gorgeous essence away. It is the most defining part of you, and I couldn’t love it more. May your days always be filled with twirling, Nigh-Night, and love, my sweet baby girl!
