Happy 14th Birthday, Savannah!

Dear Savannah,

Happy Birthday! Today you are 14 years old……which means I’ve been a mama for 14 years. How is that even possible? Here are some things I’d like to remember about you when you turned 14 years old and some things you might like to know about your 14 year old self.

You are in 8th grade this year and are an A student. You stay on top of all your work without me having to ask you about anything. Thank goodness you are so responsible.
You are a hard worker. You give everything 100% effort when it comes to school and dance.
You love dance. It’s everything to you. You switched to a new dance studio this year in downtown Chicago called The Colony and you couldn’t be happier! You are exploring more styles of dance and have really found your new home.
You still share a room with your sister, Matilda. You don’t really like it, but you deal. In a dream world, you’d have your own room.
Speaking of sharing a room, your side of the room is always a mess. You are so organized in many aspects of your life, but your room is another story. Clothes, make-up, dance stuff is everywhere. Sometimes, I just choose not to go in there.
You won’t tell us what music you like to listen to on your own. For some reason you keep that really private.
You still have some of the same favorite foods…… you love broccoli cheese soup, tortellini with shrimp and Alfredo, tacos, avocado toast, cheeseburgers, cheese, nuts, crackers and roast beef sandwiches from Jimmy John’s. For your birthday you had a big chocolate chip muffin for breakfast, Panera broccoli cheese soup for lunch and chose to go to the restaurant Slyce for wood-fired pizza.
You are a night owl. You often go to sleep after everyone else in the family. You always get your things ready for the next day ahead of time.
You love to sleep. You don’t have many mornings to sleep in with your busy schedule, but if you do, you can easily sleep until noon. You love your bed.
You love your phone. Our main punishment for talking sassy to us is to take away your phone and you act like we are are taking off your right arm.
You don’t have much social media, just Instagram for your dance (@savannah_wilkes), but you don’t have things like Tik-Tok or Snapchat.
For your birthday presents this year you got a new Vera Bradley back-pack for dance, a massage gun, a blender, a necklace, a gift card for dance tops, a silk pillowcase, food (your own boxes of certain food items that you love) and money. The massage gun was your little sister, JoJo’s idea since she is a gymnast and sees the older girls at the gym using it. I thought it was a great idea too!
You like watching YouTube on your phone, but if you are watching it while laying down, you usually fall asleep.
We have traveled some places for dance this year. You’ve been to Tampa, Indianapolis and Austin. We will be heading to Las Vegas in June for dance Nationals.
You leave cabinets open all over the house. For some reason you do not realize that you do this, but we can always tell when you’ve been in a room.
You are 5’5″ and are almost as tall as me. It feels so weird to have a child almost my size!
You love to model as well as dance. I think dance has definitely helped you with being able to pose and understand your body. You’ve modeled for a dancewear company and dance photographers this year.
On your birthday this year, you don’t have anything dance related. This is the first time that you have had a free day on your birthday since you were 8 years old!
You still like to be early everywhere you go. I’m totally used to it now, so we just always make sure we allow plenty of time to get to dance since it takes about an hour and 15 mins. to get to the studio.
You don’t hang out with a lot of people from school, but you have a lot of friends and are well liked by many. You wish I would let you be home schooled, but I like that you have school so your life isn’t 100% dance. It’s good for you to have balance.

Savannah Rose, we love you so much! You are growing up way too fast and I cannot believe you will be off to high school next year. I’m so proud of the young lady you have become this last year. I know my years are numbered with you and I’m so happy we have gotten so much mother daughter time together this year. These are memories I will cherish forever and I hope when you are all grown up that you will look back on these times fondly as well.