Dear Savannah,

Happy birthday, Savannah!! Today you turn 12 years old. 12 years old…….I can hardly believe it. In a years time, I will have my first teenager. It just doesn’t seem possible. When I started The Cottage Mama, you were a little toddler and now look at you…….you are a beautiful young woman. Here are some things I would like to remember about you when you turned 12 years old and some things you might like to know about your 12 year old self.

1. You love, love, love dance. You spend 6 or so days a week dancing working on ballet, pointe, tap, jazz and contemporary.
2. This year you are competing in the Youth American Grand Prix (YAGP) ballet competition with your variation from Paquita and your contemporary piece called Ignite. This year you have learned so many things in dance and have grown so much. I’m always in awe of your dedication, discipline and hard work. You are also on the Comp Crew team at dance and in the Dance Theatre group.
3. You play clarinet at school. You are in the advanced jr. high band which is an honor as a 6th grader.
4. You love all things food related. You love to eat food and you love food shaped items. You have a giant avocado pillow and taco pillow. You have lots of pineapples in your room as well as donut related things. If it has to do with food….you love it.
5. Speaking of food….your favorite foods are cheeseburgers, broccoli cheese soup, roast beef sandwiches, tortellini, mashed potatoes, baked beans, bbq pork, avocado toast and tacos. You also love ice cream and sweet treats!
6. You still like to arrive everywhere early. Your mantra ‘Early is on time and one time is late!’. If you are not 20 mins. early to dance, you are not a happy camper. I’ve learned to live with your ways, however, you don’t like when other people are in charge of getting you somewhere since they don’t always understand your ways of doing things.
7. You are smart. You are a great writer and are in accelerated math. You are lucky because these things come very naturally to you.
8. You are organized. Well, everywhere except your room. Your room looks like a tornado blew through (though you claim you know where everything is located)…….organized chaos, I guess. But other than your room, you are amazingly organized. I never have to check to see if you’ve done your homework, studied for a test, gotten your things together for dance. You do all of that on your own. This is something I love so much about you and is very helpful!
9. You are secretive about the type of music that you enjoy. I don’t know why, but you won’t tell us what musical artists you listen to…….just something personal that you want to keep to yourself.
10. You have lots of friends. Your closest friends are your dance friends since you spend more time with them then you spend with your family. But you also have some really great school friends as well. Your best friend at school right now is Amelia.
11. You have taken an interest in calligraphy lately and one of your teachers at school is teaching you some techniques.
12. You love to play gymnastics with your younger sister, Josephine. You like to be the coach and she is your student. You’ve taught her lots of great things during your gymnastics sessions.
13. You tend to wear the same thing to school everyday…….jeans, boots, dance t-shirt and dance fleece coat. I guess it’s your uniform. I wish you’d wear more of the cute things in your closet, but you are old enough to make your own decisions about clothing and who am I to interfere with you developing your personal style?
14. You are particular about the way things feel when it comes to clothing. I think we’ve tried 30 different leotards and you’ve maybe found one that you like. You say none of them feel right.
15. You have a phone, but no social media. I’m not ready to go there yet. You like making fun movie trailers on your phone and chatting with friends, but that’s about it.
16. I’m really hoping this next year, you learn to do your own dance hair. Right now, I still do your buns and ponytails. You don’t want to do it because you don’t think it will be as perfect as the way I do it. But it will be a huge relief when you can do that yourself. You do most of your own performance make-up. I just help with the liquid liner and the lipstick, but the rest is all you.
17. You do not like being outside. You would prefer to be indoors always. You don’t like bugs. You are not thrilled that Daddy has decided he is going to start keeping bees in the backyard, but you’ve said that is more of a reason for you to not go outside.
18. This is the first full year that you have performed en pointe. It’s been a challenge for you to find the right shoe. I’m hoping this next year brings you some much needed confidence in the pointe department. Starting something new is never easy, but I know with hard work, you will achieve success.
19. You and your sister, Matilda, still share a room. You would really like to have your own room, but that’s just not going to happen. You’ve also requested to have less pink in your room, so perhaps a room makeover with be in the not-to-distant future.
20. You love your one-on-one time with Mama at all of our dance competitions. I think your siblings get a little jealous of our time together, but I hope these are memories that you will never forget. I know I will remember our special ‘girl’ times always.

Savannah Rose………I could go on and on about all the fantastic qualities you possess. You are a daughter that truly makes our family so proud. You are kind, thoughtful, organized, loyal, smart, talented, hard working, self motivated, determined and so much more!

Happy Birthday to you sweet girl!

I love you from here to the moon and back again!

Love,

Mama