Dear Avery & Bayley,
Happy birthday week to both of you.
Avery, somehow you are turning 7 — and Bay Bay, you’ve reached 1 full year of life. Insane how the time goes by so fast, but it’s been so fun to watch and be apart of.
I’m sad that I won’t be attendance of your mermaid party today, but I’m glad we got the chance to spend the whole weekend together in Dallas for your God Mama’s wedding. We enjoyed navigating a new, rainy city with huge puddles for me to drive through. We went to the aquarium that housed Flamingos? Because of course it would. Never did I think I’d experience a sea of flamingos in the middle of Texas. We had fun groovin’ on the dance floor, and taking photos in the photo booth wearing panda and shark heads. While I didn’t particularly enjoy sleeping in the same bed with the biggest bed hog of them all, AVERY, it was still fun to annoyingly wake you up both mornings by placing Bayley on your face.
Getting back to your birthdays, I wanted to talk a little bit about each of you, as you are NOW. Because you’ll only be this little for a short time.
Bayley – You are a take-no-shit baby. You are incredibly particular about who you smile at, and who you will allow to hold you. Luckily for me, I’ve passed your test (the photo below mayyyyy say otherwise, but that’s just your resting face). And I’m honored by that. You are a slow to warm up kid, but when you do — you have the best smile and giggle. You make people work for it, and I already admire that about you. I hope that you always hold your ground, and keep that sense of bad-assness. You are already so different than your sister, but I can tell you really love her anyway. Even without speaking yet, I see it.
Avery – You are 7 going on 17. You are intelligent, inquisitive, caring, funny, and full of sass. I could write a book of all the witty things you’ve said. You’ve also become relentless. A trip to Target will always end in you negotiating buying a new toy: “I reach in the way back for the most rare toy, so it’s special.” HOW CAN ANYONE ARGUE WITH THAT LOGIC? You danced until 11:30pm at the wedding because you didn’t want to miss anything — even though your Mom and I were exhausted. So you stayed and danced until the end. You also met my friend’s son who was a couple years older than you. You seemed to really hit it off, talking about science and marvel movies and life in Texas vs California. And when we got in the car — you said, “I don’t really know what he was talking about, but I just listened anyway and nodded my head.” I laughed, but actually really admired that. You could have easily been a 7 year old kid, and thrown more mac and cheese in Bayley’s face at the end of the table. But you sat there, made a new friend, and were really respectful. Wow, am I’m proud of who you are becoming.
I can’t finish this blog without noting how much of super hero your Mom is. She is grace personified. Having a 7 and 1 year old is a lot to juggle. Dealing with a teething 1 year old who is highly attached to her, while the 7 year old wants to draw and sing and play video games with her… somehow she does it all, with ease. She is incredible at this motherhood thing, and you both are so lucky to have her.
Lastly, I’ve leave you with my favorite thing from last weekend. I realized I told you, Avery, that you were “crazy” multiple times for your funny antics or funny faces you were making. You just smiled and never had anything to say back. Until I told you, “If anyone says ‘You are crazy!” be sure to say back to them “Yeah, just the right amount.” Because we all need a little childlike crazy in our lives. And without a beat, the next time I said “You are cray cray!”… you replied: “Yeah, just the right amount.”
I love you, you little crazy mermaids. Happy birthday(s).
With love,
Aunt Megs
With Love, Aunt Megs 