Happy birthday, my beautiful 7-year-old daughter!
We got the party started a few days before your actual birthday, returning to an Oktoberfest-themed party and throwing one of our biggest parties ever. Now that we have so many school and neighborhood friends alongside long-time friends and family, we can really throw down. You spent the party hours leading your friends around the backyard playing a lot of chase and pretend games, including the class favorite, “Copy of Luna.” Your Mom made her famous beer sausauges and we ordered pretzels. A lot of adults showed up and stayed into the evening, which is the sign of a great party.
To signal my long-term commitment to the Oktoberfest theme, I bought real leather lederhosen this year. Your Mom wore her dirdl outfit. Matteo wasn’t into the theme and stuck to his Flash Halloween costume. You looked cute as a button wearing a Little Red Riding Hood costume with a touch of red lipstick.
Unfortunately, my first work trip in months coincided with your actual birthday, and that made both of us sad. We are truly spoiled to spend so much time together and forgot what it’s like to be apart for a few days. You cried about my trip on your birthday eve, but we cuddled and said everything would be OK. And it was.
You’re growing into such a smart, interesting kid. You’ve really gotten into reading and went from reading sight words to complete, multi-syllabic paragraphs in what seems like a matter of weeks. The school year is no coincidence. You’re also practicing writing long-form, copying complete paragraphs from books to recreate them. Your second book is titled, “Curious Kids Nature Guide.” Very on brand for us.
Social life has picked up, too. We’re in the middle of a soccer season for you and Matteo and we’ve got two birthday parties for friends today around Tacoma. It’s a little hectic and a lot of fun hanging with this life stage. You keep pushing and Mom and I will be along for the ride, and chauffeur you, of course.
Love, Dad