You're Eleven Years Old!

Dear Lila,

Well, it has happened. At your annual check-up last week, the nurse measured your height and said that you are now 5 feet, 4 inches tall. I am 5 feet, 2 inches tall. You are officially taller than me. At the young age of 11! And wait, you are 11!!! Happiest of birthdays to my crazy tall Lilabear!!!

Every year, you make me prouder and prouder to be your mom. You are so kind, thoughtful and generous. You help Daddy and me so much with our daily tasks (you always ask me if I need help with anything). You take care of your siblings and always look out for them (at your school Halloween party, you made sure to grab extra bags of chips and candy to share with your DiDi and MuiMui). You are respectful and appreciative (you thank me for making dinner every single night). And you are one of the most hard-working kids I know. Your work load this semester was a lot heavier than it was in 5th grade and you had a lot of late nights where you didn't go to bed until after 10pm because you were working on social studies questions or math sets. Then you had to wake up at 6am the next morning to help get breakfast for your brothers, eat your own breakfast and get ready for the bus. And while you often complained that you were tired, you always woke up on your own and did what you needed to do in order to be ready before the bus pulled up in front of our house.

You always do your schoolwork and it has paid off--your ELA teacher said you have the second highest grade in your class and your social studies teacher said you are one of the strongest students. You struggled in math a bit this semester but you are in honors math learning 7th- and 8th-grade concepts and I am so proud of you for sticking with the class and taking on the challenges, especially when three of your classmates decided to drop the class within the first week of school because it was difficult for them.

I am also proud of your growing confidence. You have always been shy; at the Garden New Student Orientation back in August, you were literally hiding behind me while I was trying to initiate conversations between you and the other new students! You didn't know anyone at Garden before you started but the other 6th graders have been so welcoming and you are very comfortable being amongst them. You have already gotten close to a couple of the other girls and you seem very happy at your new school. Whenever you come home, you are full of stories about funny things that happened between you and your classmates that day.

You have grown so much but you are still my Lila who devours books (you're currently into fantasy series like Keeper of the Lost Cities, The Land of Stories and The Hunger Games) and likes stories inspired by fairy tales. You also like playing Wordle, Connections and Sudoku and you spend a lot of time listening to songs by Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo. Your preferred outfit is a sweatshirt, crop top and flared leggings and you love shopping for new earrings, especially dangly ones. And most importantly, you still like spending time with me! I am grateful that when you come home from school, you can't wait to tell me those aforementioned stories, instead of just reporting to me that your day was "fine." I am grateful that you still want to give me hugs and kisses and that you make sure to kiss me on the cheek every day before you go outside to wait for your bus. I am grateful that you don't want to go to sleep until we do our nightly bedtime mantra and secret handshake. I am grateful that when I ask if you want to do something together, you always eagerly say yes.

We had a chance to do two special somethings together this week for your birthday. The first one was yesterday when I took you to your very first Broadway show, Wicked! Given your interest in reimagined fairy tales, it was the perfect show for you--and you loved it! I had already seen Wicked twice before and it was still amazing a third time, but I actually spent a majority of the show watching you watch the show--it was really special to see what you smiled and laughed at and how you reacted to certain parts. After the show, I took you to the stage door and you got to meet the actor who plays the prince! He was so incredibly nice and stopped to talk to you for awhile, asking you if you also want to perform on Broadway and wishing you a happy birthday when I told him we were there to celebrate!

Today, I took you and your friends out for pizza and then to see the new Wonka movie. It was actually the first time you'd been able to celebrate with friends on your actual birthday because most people are usually away for the winter break, but it worked out this year and you got to spend your big 1-1 with a couple of your old elementary school friends and couple of your new Garden School friends. Happy birthday, sweetheart! I love you so so much! You said you had a lot of fun for your birthday this year and I'm so glad--you deserve it!

Love,

Mom