Happy 9th Birthday, Savannah Rose!

Happy 9th Birthday, Savannah Rose

Dear Savannah,

Today you are 9 years old! Happy Birthday!! Wow, it’s hard to believe that you are only one year away from double digits. It’s true what they say……time flies when you are having fun! Here are some things that I would like to remember about you when you turned 9 years old and a few things that you might like to know about your 9 year old self.

You love to dance. You are doing competition dance team this year and are loving every minute of it.
You like to be early everywhere you go. My mantra of ‘early is on time and on time is late’ has rubbed off on you in a major way. You like to arrive at dance 15 mins. early and you are always worried that your sister, Matilda, is going to make you miss the bus. Luckily that has never happened, but you still like to worry about it.
You are not having a birthday party this year because you had a big one last year and will be spending the weekend with Mama in a hotel at a dance competition. You are going to be performing six dances including your solo. I had such fond memories of dance competition weekends with my mom that I can’t wait to share in these experiences and memories with you.
You are very sensitive. There are a lot of things that make you feel like you want to cry. And you do cry quite a bit.
You were one of the grade level winners for the Young Authors contest at your school with your story, ‘The Talking Cheeseburger.” And while the title may sound kind of silly, the story was so sweet. In a nutshell, it’s about how being different can make people feel sad, but in reality it’s our differences that make us special, unique and beautiful. We are proud of you for coming up with such a wonderful story.
Speaking of cheeseburgers, your favorite food is cheeseburgers. Although, you had a choking incident a month or so ago and have been really nervous about eating foods that are hard to chew. Luckily, you seem to be coming around, but it really scared you and you only ate very soft things for a week after that moment.
You are a great big sister. You especially love to play with your youngest sibling, Josephine. She likes to give you ‘check-ups’ when playing doctor.
You are definitely going through a ‘Mama’s Girl’ phase. You loooooooove being with your Mama (which I don’t mind). You hug me so tight and say ‘I just think I love you toooooooo much.’ I always tell you, you can never love too much.
This year you performed a jazz solo in your school talent show. The whole family was so proud of you because that took a lot of courage to get up in front of the whole school and perform as well as the 350 parents during the night performance. I don’t know that I would have done that by myself in 3rd grade.
You have great self-esteem and confidence.
You are extremely organized at school and in everything you do………except for your bedroom. You like to leave your clothes all over the place. It’s kind of funny since you are the more organized one between you and Matilda and her side of the room is so neat and tidy and yours looks like a hurricane came through the house.
You love your 3rd grade teacher. She loves cows and you love cows. When you found out she was your teacher, you said ‘it was meant to be’. She has her room decorated with cow things everywhere. She’s a wonderful teacher and you absolutely love going to school. During our parent teacher conference she told Daddy and I that if she could have an entire class filled with Savannah’s, she would be the happiest teacher on earth.
You’ve gotten more into reading this year. Your Gigi brought you back a book from Scotland called ‘Daisy and the Trouble with Vampires’. You absolutely loved that book and read the whole book in two days. Luckily I was able to find more books in the series online, but that really ignited your love of reading. Right now you are reading ‘Tuck Everlasting’. You were waiting and waiting for it to become available at the school library and it finally did!
You enjoy arts and crafts a lot. You like to do projects up in your room. You just made some really sweet necklaces last weekend.
You don’t have a lot of time to watch television or play video games since you are always dancing, but you do like to work on building your world in Minecraft.
You have a good group of girlfriends at school (Emma, Berit, Naiya, Estella, Ava, Amelia, Addison, Lilly and Alexa) as well as your super close dance friends (Chloe, Ella and Avery).
Your big sister at dance this year is Alyssa and I think you feel pretty special when she is around and chatting with you.
You have mis-heard some pretty funny things this year that we like to giggle about. You thought your teacher said that the class mascot “Mr. Moo Moo” was ‘toast intolerant’……when really she said he was ‘lactose intolerant’ and then in the Nutcracker when you were a solider, you thought they said you were in the ‘Third Italian’, when really it was the ‘Third Battalion’. Also, you thought when someone was an ‘only child’ they were called a ‘lonely child’. I think there might be one more, but these have definitely brought about some laughs.
For your birthday this year, you are getting lots of ‘Happy Places’ Shopkins. It doesn’t really seem like you are as into the Shopkins as you used to be, but that’s what you said you wanted, so that’s what you will be receiving.
You are smart, kind, a good friend, sensitive, loving, determined, confident and driven.

Savannah, you have grown up so much in the last year and matured in so many ways. You are such a special little girl with so many amazing qualities that I admire. You were the child that made me a Mama and there will always be such a special place for you in my heart. 9 years ago today changed my world forever and it was the best change to ever happen to me. We all love you so very much and I hope you have the most wonderful birthday today. We can’t wait to celebrate you!

I love you to the moon and back again……..