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| The Prettiest Star |
Here is an ode to my only child, because in a few short weeks, she will no longer BE my only child :) I just wanted to take some time to recognize how special she is, and how precious these first ten years have been with her, because the dynamics of our family will be changing soon and I'm not saying she'll no longer be special, but once the baby is born, things will be different.
Jimmy and I had always planned for a large age gap between Jolie and our next kid (and due to circumstances beyond our control, it ended up being a REALLY large gap). We wanted Jolie to have her time to shine.
And shine she has! I am so infinitely proud of her and the person she is becoming. She's incredibly smart--even from her earliest days, we could see it in her eyes that she was constantly observing and analyzing everything. She's extremely creative--right now, she's working on a series of digital art on her iPad focused on representing different phobias, which she is researching for fun. And my proud-Hufflepuff daughter is so sensitive and kind, always putting others first and caring deeply about injustice in the world.
I know all parents think highly of their kids (or at least, they SHOULD!), but Jolie is just such a cool person to KNOW, and I think my opinion is validated by other people who have met her. I mean, obviously, none of my friends are going to straight-up tell me, "Your child is awful," but no one is forcing them to tell me, "JOLIE IS SUCH A COOL KID," and yet they do anyway, so I assume the unsolicited compliments mean something real. Lately, she's gotten really into watching horror movies with her daddy, and she loves going out for bubble tea with me, and at any given time, she might be singing Depeche Mode or Kate Bush to herself around the house or while she plays Overwatch. (I don't know, maybe some people don't think that's particularly cool, but _I_ think the fact that she's ten and genuinely enjoys all those things is really cool!) She likes Blackpink and builds houses with underground roller coasters in Minecraft and likes to repurpose discarded materials into craft projects. She's incredibly sweet and still wants to cuddle with her mommy sometimes, after a hard day.
And it's like... yes, we've waited SO long to have a second child, and we wish he could've come sooner, but at the same time, I'm so grateful to have had all this time with just Jolie, to really focus on her and get to know her (because as much as we have shaped her, she's also a force of nature on her own!), and watch her become her own person.
And now she's about to take on the role of big sister, and I can't wait to see her excel at it, as she does with pretty much everything.
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| She steals my sweatshirts. |