Seven!

Lilah is 7.

Actually, she's been seven since December 16th.

I have not had a lot of time to write lately, so this is a belated birthday blog!

Lilah at seven. Here we go:

- Tall! Four feet tall to be exact.

- So smart. At the Fall parent-teacher conference, Lilah's teacher described her as "A model student...excellent math skills...attentive and thoughtful...great at problem solving. A good friend, too, and an excellent member the class." I blushed with pride...and couldn't believe that a child with half of my DNA had any math skills, never mind excellent ones.

- She is quirky, with a dark sense of humor. When asked to draw a house in art class, she drew a haunted house with a corpse in the doorway.

- She is very intuitive, which is probably why she has such a dark side. She knows that good and evil can coexist and can usually figure people out pretty quickly.

- She is scarily good at reasoning...even with herself!

- She talks in her sleep. After working late, Michael went into her room to check on her and, as he kissed her forehead, she sleepily exclaimed, "Oh! My sweet prince! You have come to kiss me!". Also, after losing her second tooth a few weeks ago, Michael and I went to take her tooth from under her pillow and replace it with a dollar. When we did, she said, "I was hoping to meet you, Tooth Fairy!", sound asleep all the while.

- Though she tends to be on the quiet side, Lilah is a popular girl. Her teacher and I both think it's because she's easy-going, but plays on her own terms. She knows how to have fun with her friends, but she's nobody's doormat.

- She loves science, especially anything having to do with animals, weather, or chemistry. She is fearless when it comes to all types of critters - even creepy, crawly, slimy ones.

- She loves music and has pretty diverse taste. She'll listen to pretty much anything as long as it's not "too noisy". For her birthday, Michael and I took her to see Wicked, which was playing in Providence. She was already very familiar with the music, but had never seen a live musical production of any kind before. When the lights went down and the orchestra took that "ff" on the opening bars seriously, the look on her face was just incredible. Pure awe and joy. It made me so glad that we could give her such a special day.

- She loves art, both creating it and admiring it.

- Because of that, she really enjoys visually stunning movies. Some of her favorites are Coraline, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Princess Bride, The Wizard of Oz, E.T., The Never-Ending Story, Spirited Away, and Ponyo. She also really likes Pixar movies and old cartoons, especially Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes.

- She truly appreciates the absurd.

- She is the only 1st grader I've ever met that enjoys going to Hebrew school.

- She adores books. Her favorites thus far: Matilda, Superfudge, the Beverly Cleary "Ramona" books, the Junie B. Jones series, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, and several smaller story books. If I listed all of her favorite short story books, it would take all day, but my favorite short story to read with her is this one. Such a lovely little book.

- She loves to help me cook. Molasses cookies are our specialty.

- She is still, as far as we know, severely allergic to all things dairy - milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, etc. Until recently, she took it in stride, but, understanding now that it's a hindrance, she's having a tough time with it. Last week, she cried because she couldn't have regular ice cream. She had never been so emotional about her allergy before. The only thing we can do is to get her retested this Spring and hope for the best. She already outgrew her egg allergy, so maybe her immune system will kick this one to the curb, too.

- She played soccer this past Fall. It was her first time doing any sort of team sport and she enjoyed it enough to want to do it again in the Spring!

- She still has some sweet little habits and malapropisms leftover from her toddler/preschool years. Beef is still "beeth", big toes are still "foot thumbs". She still sleeps with Teddy, her well-loved bear, every night. She still curls up in my lap when she's sad or tired. I treasure these last vestiges of her smaller years in the hopes that my sentimentality will act as some sort of headwind against the push of time. Growing children are inevitable, though, and time pushes harder than I do. She will get bigger and outgrow her cute Little Lilah habits to make room for more grown up mannerisms. That being said, I do think that whomever she marries will have to leave room in the bed for Teddy.

Happy 7th, Lilah Rachel. I love you. xoxox