The Great Eight

January 22, 2022

The Great Eight

Happy, happy eight Sassy girl!

You have been counting down for weeks and it is finally your birthday.

It seems like just yesterday you were a tiny two. You are still petite, but every day you look more and more grown up. You've decided that you'd like to stay your current tiny size forever and don't understand why that isn't possible. This from the girl who was wildly disappointed on her 4th birthday when she didn't wake up with the boobs she ask God for.

You love to walk on your toes, like you're in high heels or pointe shoes, and you dance, stretch, and preen your little heart out. And you *LOVE* to strike a pose. You've gone from wanting to be a mama when you grow up to wanting to be a dancer. It doesn't matter the music; you'll dance and groove to the rhythm.

You love playing on the iPad and watching Spy Ninjas or A for Adley with Skye. You were both so excited when we stayed at the "Black Pyramid" in Vegas.

You and Sis are the best of friends, sneakiest of sneaks, and the biggest scrappers. I love that these two years have allowed you time together to become really, truly besties.

You are insanely creative. You will take *any*, and I mean any, scrap of paper or craft supply, and make something out of it. For quite some time, you were obsessed with making miniature dollhouses, furniture, etc out copy paper and tape. You turn folders into laptops, and any small object into a cell phone. You love the weekly take and make projects from the Library and I'm sure my coworkers are tired of hearing "The Beckstead girls love anything that allows them to cut, design, and find a way to be creative and make their own thing".

For Halloween we thought it would be fun to be the Simpsons family until you decided you wanted to be that gold girl with the rope (Wonder Woman). You and Shawna made an awesome costume and it was a perfect choice. Like Buddy the Elf, your favorite group is and always has been sugar, so you dig any holiday that celebrates with candy.

You loved our trip to the beach and are a beach bum at heart. You even pretended to sunbath on the sidewalk on Christmas Day, because there was no snow in Wyoming in December.

You love to play beauty shop and fix hair, whether it is yours or someone else's. You love to dress yourself in your own wild and wonderful style. Your favorite color is pink, and you love all things bows and unicorns. You were really hoping a real-life unicorn might be your birthday surprise.

You still talk about your "special day with Mama and Daddy" in May. Your favorite Librarian 😏😉 planned a special Wyoming Reads celebration just for you, since we weren't all vaccinated and so you didn't go to the one at the Library. We had Dairy Queen dinner and ice cream, read your book choice "Stretchy McHandsome", and you were the only 1st grader in town to get one of the special yellow rose cookies that were just for the volunteers.

You love people. You are such a social butterfly and I know the last two years have been hard on you, being away from friends and other adults. We all giggle when you see someone we haven't seen in awhile or meet a new teacher online, because you will talk their ear off and give a 3 minute word dump of all the stories you've been storing up.

You are kind, loving, and thoughtful. You love Jesus and are our official family prayer leader. You still start your prayers with "Dear God, Thank you for this blessing." You and Skye started saying "I love you all the Way to Jesus and back" and now it has become our family phrase.

You are so smart; smarter than you give yourself credit for. You can do anything you put your mind to. Right now in 2nd grade, you are practicing and growing your reading skills and in math you are learning about clocks and money. Even though you have the most school work of any of the three of you, you are rocking it.