J Cooper Photography

Over this past weekend we celebrated another birthday.  Our little Jules is growing up.  First grade.  Seven.  Big stuff.

Our lives seem to be simultaneously in slow motion and running out of control.  Life is happening all around us.  There are changes around every turn.  And meanwhile things big and little are getting shoved to the side.  But I don’t want to let this one slide.  I don’t want to miss out on documenting seven.

She’s the peanut butter of our family.  Stuck in between a couple of slices of personality.  She’s on the shy side at first but once she knows you….she’s a river of giggles…bubbling up and out from the depths of her tiny frame.  She is teetering so violently between little and big right now, I worry she’s perpetually dizzy.  She’s begging for dresses and tights in one store and “completely over them” by the next stop.  She came home from school today and announced, “A boy is gonna call here in a bit…he wants to ask me to a football game”.  For a minute she looked up at me like she was 14 and then flitted off to play American Girl dolls.

She’s dramatic with a capital D.  She’s got the “this is the worst day ever” speech perfected with her emPHASis in all the right places.  She can roll her eyes, bat her eyes, and make you cross-eyed yourself in the space of 60 seconds.  She still speaks with such a strong Brooklyn accent we wonder somedays if we really are her parents.  Oh, but the snuggles.  She’ll cuddle in tight and stay there forever.  She can’t ever get enough.

This little girl is smart.  I’m on to her.  She’d like to stay the family baby…she’s not too thrilled that she had to give up that gig 2 kids ago.  So somedays she pretends…talks young…acts young.   But I’m onto her.  And I’ve seen her report card and the blank stare on her teacher’s face when I mention the need for “speech therapy”.  “Why Julia?  She’s the most determined, mature child in my classroom.”  Oooh, this girl is goood.

Most days our little Jule is happy as a clam.  Helpful.  A wonder with her brothers.  She’s chipper and mostly sunny with rainbows.  She’s sensitive and kind and FUNNY.  She snorts when she laughs, has a pension for meat, and the tinniest little toosh this side of Kansas.  She tries hard.  She’s competitive.  She has the cutest handwriting I think I’ve ever seen.

We celebrated her special day with dinner out and a few presents at home.  House showings kept us out of the house all day so we stopped in for a store bought cake and she was thrilled with the fancy writing of her name.  How I love that I can spoil my children with a $6 bakery cake and a tacky panda hat.  Some day not too far away…it’s going to take much more than that

{her birthday celebration iphone style}

Happy birthday, baby.  We love you and pray that God will use that spunk to light up the world!