Bonne Anniversaire, Mini-Me!

"Don't forget to do all your favourite 7-year-old things today - it's the last day you can do them!"

[Puzzled] "Like what?"

"Well, aren't there some things that you like to do that you won't be able to do when you're eight?"

[...] "Nope."

Oh sweet girl, you warmed my heart yesterday. Like you do everyday, of course, but yesterday you reminded me that just because it seems as though you are two steps and a breath away from curfews, boyfriends, and driver's permits, you're still quite happy in your Mom Teddy world.

Not that you haven't grown up this past year. And faced challenges that, truth be told, would make your mother quake. Starting your third school in three years, learning how to swim, figuring out how to add profile pictures to the contacts on your personal email account - all things that I'm not sure I could do if I tried.

And yet you do it effortlessly. Sure, there's often whining involved, but when it comes down to it, soaking up the world and negotiating your way through it come as naturally as breathing to you. Your capacity to absorb knowledge is astounding, and your memory frightens me with its detailed recall (particularly when you bust me on something I was hoping you would forget about). You are sweet and kind and generous, and it's no wonder your friends love you.

Your creativity is sheer delight - only you would set up an entire carnival in our basement, complete with tickets, games ("Guess the number of beads - no counting!"), and prizes. And, of course, you've got that winning way about you, grinning as you handed me an envelope filled with Free! Tickets! to the Carnival! in order to coerce your mother downstairs.

Child of mine, girl of my heart, looking at you is like looking at a mirror. Except everything in this mirror is more colourful, more beautiful - you have taken the best parts of me and transformed them into richer, shinier versions of the pale originals you received.

May this year be a fabulous year filled with the new and the wondrous, fitting effortlessly alongside the old and the familiar.