Riley

In just three weeks, Riley will celebrate her 7th birthday. As the middle child, I'm sure that her birthdays may somehow seem "less" like milestones to me, if only because Conor celebrates each birthday "first" and Quinn celebrates each birthday "last". But for some reason, this impending birthday is hard for me. Riley is such a unique and wonderful person. She is so smart and creative and FUNNY and self-possessed. She is so much cooler than I could ever hope to be.

I've been thinking about all the little Riley-isms we've encountered over the year. All the times she set up tea parties for umpteen stuffed animals and dolls, her love for accessories and clothes and boots and all things fashionable and how she loves to show it all off, her true and deep friendship with Max - which I always thought was just the sweetest thing, how she's genuinely adoring of BOTH of her brothers and would do anything for them, the special place she has in her heart for my mom, her Gigi. She's been through a lot, my Riley... if you can catch it, she will somehow. She's had dozens of painful laser treatments on her birthmark, scary allergic reactions, minor oral surgery, a dog bite to her face that left her two and riddled with stitches. She's beyond a tough cookie. She's more special than I could possibly put into words.

These last couple years we've enjoyed a little more girl time... we go to get our nails done together, we've seen High School Musical on Ice together, for her birthday this year we are taking a couple friends to have a girls night at The Jonas Brothers 3-D in concert movie, and I so look forward to all the girl times to come. And so as much as I feel sad about how my sweet girl is growing up, I am also truly embracing our mother-daughter future together.