Ari and Paris

My favorite girl turned 12 recently. Her only request for a gift was a mum and daughter trip to Paris. I could handle that. So before she opens her birthday presents she gets a card. Cool. Everyone had signed it, she read it, finished opening her gifts and was totally ready to dig in to some cake. But first I had one more thing for her.

Another card...

Except this one was telling her we were going to Paris! And go to Paris we did, this is at the Louvre. Why hello, Mona Lisa.

It was a selfie with my phone so the photo is a mirror image. You can't get too close to the painting. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated seeing it in person but I really thought we would be able to, like, get a wee bit closer. But no. 

Funny thing is you can get all up on the painting of Jesus and his posse but get this close to the Mona Lisa and you get tackled by the overweight security guard. 



Oh wait, we aren't in America anymore, the security guard isn't overweight.

When in Paris you have to have crepes. It's a law. And if you're a resident of Twilight House you have to have nutella in your crepe. That is also a law.

We walked all over Paris, saw the coolest sites, did some shopping, and witnessed the dudes that seek trinkets outside the Eiffel Tower run from the cops. It was fabulous.

Here's to my last year of having a tweenage daughter, this kid keeps me on my toes - I dig that. And nutella filled crepes.

Ana and the Middle School Play

Ariana tried out for the school play. 

Don't worry. That's not the look of her being scared of tryouts, that's a picture of her on the tube for the first time into London. Random, though fitting.

Owen and I watched her audition. Correction: I watched, Owen ate chips. 

I was so very proud of her. I wrote her this note and left it for her to read in the morning before heading to school to find out if she landed a role in the play.

Bella,

First, I want to tell you how incredibly proud of you I am. The
bravery and courage it took for you to audition for that play in front
of so many people shows just how amazing you are. I want you to know
that no matter what, you should stand with your head held high
regardless of whether or not you land a part in the play. Second, I
want to tell you that you are one of my heroes. I have few, and you
are one of them. From the time you were in my belly you have had to
overcome obstacles but you are a fighter, you made it, you are here,
you are strong, you are alive. And I believe that one reason you are
so feisty and fearless is because perhaps unconsciously you are taking
every piece of this life and you are making the most of you. You are
being you. And that is a rare thing. A thing to be proud of. I admire
you for that. Lastly, you are beautiful. Inside and out. And you don't
even realize how physically beautiful you are which, to me, makes you
that much more stunning. You are beautiful, and smart, and brave, and
I'm proud to be your mom.

I love you princess,
Mommy

Then she came home and showed me this:

And we celebrated by doing random dance moves in the kitchen. It's how we roll. We're weird. Case in point:

Or evil. Or creepy. Or whatever you gather from the above photo. I dig it. Unless I look at it for longer than five seconds, at which point I get nervous to be alone with myself. And her. I'm sure she'd agree. 

And just to leave things on a less frightening note, take in the photo of my gangsta girl below. She's getting into character. No, seriously, she beat boxes at the end of one scene. What can I say, I make thugs...from scratch.

Ari's 10!

My one and only baby girl is officially in the double digits as of this morning. Yep, she’s 10 and yeah ya’ll, that means I’m old. I cannot, for the life of me, grasp the fact that she is 10 years old. Where does time go? It seems like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant with a girl. I was so excited but I’ll admit that I was scurred; I had hoped for another boy since my first bambino was boy and I knew what to do with boys. Plus, I knew the hell I put my parents through and I wasn’t looking forward to my daughter putting me through the same shenanigans. Let me put it to you like this, when I told my parents I was expecting a girl my dad chuckled and then simply said, “Payback, Lor.”

Says it all, don't it?

She’s my little rebel, but I wouldn’t trade her for the world. She’s the smartest kid I know, and I don’t just say that because she’s mine. She’s beyond beautiful and she doesn’t even realize just how gorgeous she is, which makes her that much prettier. She’s kind, yet sassy. And talks more than anyone I’ve ever met. Seriously, if you get in my car and the radio is off you can assume that Ariana was in the car on the last trip because there is no listening to the radio with her in the back seat, she’d rather chat your ear off. She was born a chatterbox; she said her first full sentence at just over a year old. I’ll never forget it, she received a stoller as a gift for her new baby doll and as soon as she opened the stroller she buckled her baby in, started pushing the stroller around the living room and said, “Baby, you ready go bye-bye?”

Dammit, now I’m gonna cry.

She’s super artsy; she loves music, she loves to draw and paint and make something from nothing. She’s my creative child. She’s also the one that’s not afraid to stand up for other kids.

Oh, and she's a goofball. Case in point:

She’s my little fighter. I had a very scary pregnancy with her. I went into pre-term labor at 19 weeks and the doctor basically told me that she wouldn’t survive if she was born at that time. They gave me a shot to stop my contractions and put me on bedrest but I still went into labor about once a month for the rest of my pregnancy. Finally, on the morning of 17 April the doctors didn’t attempt to stop my labor anymore and my 6lbs 0oz munchkin was born only three weeks shy of her 6 May due date. She’s always been small physically but she has a big personality.

When the boyfriend and I get knocked-up I hope to have another little girl, thanks in large part to the awesomeness that is Ariana.

So here’s to you Ariana Noelle, my little guitar playing, canvas painting, talkative rebel of a beautiful child. Happy birthday Bella, we love you to the moon and back.