Ode to my 7-year old, Olivia

It doesn't sink in right away.  You are basking in the glow of a newborn; you are feeding burping, changing.  You are holding hands as she toddles, wiping faces, giving baths, reading stories.  You plan birthday parties, celebrate and make cakes.  It took me a few days on this one, but it has finally hit home.  My daughter is seven.  Olivia turned seven on September 18th and Dave and I celebrate our anniversary on September 22nd.  Olivia arrived 3 weeks early, so she became our anniversary present to each other.  What else were we going to do?  During those days, work consumed every bit of our extra energy, so anniversary presents were a brief thought.  We gave each other a doozie on that anniversary!  Olivia has been one to keep us on our toes.  As I type, she is watching bats on the Discovery Channel.  She examines our new puppy, Kobe daily.  Poor dog, he hasn't visited the vet yet, but no worries, he has Olivia.  She wants us to admit that Kobe is her dog.  We say he is 'the family's dog'.  Not good enough for her.  She catches fish with her net at the lake and again, examines each and every one of them.  Hmm, I wonder if she will enjoy dissecting animals in biology or zoology?  You know, I did, so maybe we are on to something here.

On to her 7th birthday....We celebrated with treats on the playground with her class.  Olivia chose to have Skylar over for a spend the night party.  We kept adding to the fun by baking an orange cake together, getting a mani/pedi, eating at Los Bravos (party hat and song included), then waking up bright and early Saturday morning, her actual birthday, to open presents (they woke up early, we pulled ourselves out of bed worried that they didn't take Kobe out to use the bathroom).  Present opening was tons of fun with Skylar, Zach and Olivia....and Kobe.  Zach had a baseball game, so he and Dave were off.  I took the girls to see Alpha and Omega at the movies.  What is it about?  Two lost wolves and the hierarchy of the pack, none the less.  The girls loved the movie and asked to bring their 3D glasses home; maybe in hopes of daddy buying a 3D television?  Right.... We still need a normal t.v. for the lake!  After a stop by Publix for more cake ingredients (the first one was gluten free....tee hee hee, so I figured we could make another that she would really enjoy), they were given birthday balloons and we were on our way to make another cake.  Cake...check, playing...check, pool with friends...check, were were officially partied out!

Happy Birthday, our darling Olivia!