Thursday, May 1, 2014

Happy (belated) 6th birthday, Azadeh!

Her birthday dinner.

At karate.

Playing with a bubble toy she got for her birthday. 

Skate camp.


Reading in the bath.

Baking "strawberry hide-and-seek muffins."

The sweatshirt she saw and loved. 

Making an ant for a school project.

Her brand-new sparring gear for karate.

Reading about how to calm her baby brother. 

If someone had asked me six years ago what I was hoping my daughter would be like, I wouldn't have known exactly what to say. Happy. Balanced. Whatever she wanted to be. And if that person had said they could see into the future, and that my daughter would love to skate, to do karate, to draw, to bake, to read,  and to dress up fancy, well, I'd have been delighted! 

And now here I am in the middle of it, and that's who she is. That's not to say that she isn't sometimes argumentative, mouthy, loud, and extremely energetic. But underneath it all, she seems to know that we love her and we accept her just how she is. And I think she feels supported in whatever she wants to try. Not everything is on the table -- she sometimes asks to re-join soccer or ballet, and I discourage her. I don't want to be the parent who schedules our whole lives around driving to various lessons. But overall, I think we allow her to express herself and try out her various interests, and I couldn't be happier with the adventurous, risk-taking, fearless, sweet, curious, smart, loving child she is.