Ava is officially a teen, AND having her first pandemic birthday. She’s handling things so well even though it’s almost been a year of social distancing and restrictions. She’s in middle school and at a NEW school for the first time in her life. The transition has been kind of hard, but she’s been handling it with grace. She’s slowly making new friends, although it’s so much harder when 1/3 of her school time is virtual and the rest is limited and distant. As an introvert, she doesn’t seem to mind the limited socializing although there are things she misses like movie theaters and restaurant dinners.
Big physical changes and emotional upheavals are very real entering the teen years, but again, she’s handling things very gracefully.
For her birthday, she decided to spend some special time with her two best friends. With our next door neighbor, the plan was to be allowed to bake apple pies and eat them! They made beautiful pies and had a great time.
With her best friend, she asked to spend a day running around town having a photo shoot. We bought matching pink hoodies and planned out all the stops. We got pictures at Mayfield Park with the gardens and peacocks, pictures with the Mount Bonnell views in the background, great shots in front of some favorite murals and the big ATX sculpture downtown. We had bubble tea along the way and finished with sushi for dinner.
She said these were better and more meaningful celebrations than she might have had with her typical non-COVID birthday parties. I’m so proud of this beautiful girl. She has such a big heart for animals still and such wisdom for her age. She is able to understand SO much more about human behavior, emotions, and relationships than I did at her age. She’s definitely finding a lot of interest in the teen things too and would love to spend a lot more time shopping and talking about hair and makeup than I’m willing to do. She spends a lot of time drawing and painting, and I don’t think it’s just a passing phase anymore. Without any training or education, she is learning to make beautiful art through dedication and a BIG commitment of time. She loves to listen to podcasts now, and I think she regrets making fun of me for talking about podcast episodes so much. She’s messy, but appropriately apologetic about it. She loves to eat good food and still likes the healthy stuff. She’s about to be taller than me……sniff.
I love you, Ava. Happy Birthday!
Author Info
No Comments