Lucky #7

Sassy is now 7! She's such a sweet, wise-beyond-her-years kid.  Sometimes I forget how young she really is (like when she's tired and whining and crying like a stinkin' elementary kid.  Oh wait.. . .)  So far, the summer she turned 7 has been pretty good.

This was her first year playing coach pitch.  BIG step up from t-ball!  Let's just say she may have inherited the J Family "We Play Once a Year and It Shows" Genes.  HA!  Actually she did really well. Softball is a hard sport to learn.  First there's the whole hitting the ball thing.  Then on defense, you've gotta watch to see if you can tag a player or just the base.  And watch who's on what and where you need to throw the ball.  But all of the girls improved SO much.  It was really fun to see how much they had grown and learned throughout the season.  And  Sassy got some great hits.  It was so fun to watch her get on base--and even make it home!

Her team had a pool party on Sunday night to celebrate the end of the season.  It's been really fun to get to know the other families, and her coaches were amazing.  One asked if she was going to play again next year and she responded with an enthusiastic "YES!"  followed quickly with, "Are they having another pool party?"   All for the love of the game, right?

At the pool party she conquered another first:  going off the diving board.

One of her coaches was treading water below "catching" everyone and unbeknownst to him, Sassy can't swim.  Well, Sassy THINKS she can't swim.  She'll kick like crazy, paddle correctly and turn her head back and forth, even stick her face in the water, but as soon as I remove my ONE hand from her belly, she sinks.  So we get her to jump to Coach S and he helps her surface, then lets her go!  And sure enough, she doggy paddled to the side!  I think I'll just keep tossing her in the deep end.  This one isn't our daredevil and she can talk herself out of trying something new WAY too quickly. . .

Like trying to ride her bike without training wheels.  Daddy took them off a few weeks ago because we suddenly realized she was almost seven.  Oops.  Shouldn't seven year olds ride bikes?  Parenting fail! After one night of trying (and crying), she demanded that we put them back on.  (Unfortunately, so many things have come easy to Sassy that she doesn't always tackle a challenge well. . .)   The next day, she changed her mind and we practiced some more.  And then almost overnight, she was doing laps around our circle drive!  She still has the occasional wipe-out (or collision with a tree--just yesterday actually. . . ) but it's amazing how fast she picked it up.  It's so fun to see how proud she is to do it on her own.

On vacation (more on that later!), she lost another tooth (I think that was #7!) and the Tooth Fairy managed to find our condo.  :)  She also tried paddle boarding and she rocked it!  We laughed and said it was because she was a tad bit lighter than Daddy and didn't have as far to fall. . .

And finally, the biggest news about turning seven was this:

I had initially told her she had to wait until she was ten and then over the past few months, we decided to surprise her for her birthday.

(She's truly 7 going on 40.  Just this morning she woke me to say she'd had a nosebleed.  I jumped out of bed, crying, "Uh oh!" and her response:  "I handled it."  Of course you did. . . ) We planned on going on her birthday and she asked if Wednesday was good.  HA!  She didn't want it to hurt ON her birthday.  So Wednesday it was.  In true Sassy fashion she was a nervous wreck (wonder where she gets that) but then she stepped up and owned it.

The night of her birthday we sat out on the back deck at midnight and watched the Super Moon.  It was one of those moments you want to bottle up for later.  I'm so proud of the young lady she's growing into.  The other day she asked how I remembered her birthday every year.  HA!  My initial response:  "Uhhh, I was there."  But then I realized: "That was the day I became a mama."  And she thinks it's HER lucky day.  :)