Happy 11th Birthday!
Dear Mercedes,
Today, you turn eleven! Last year felt like such an incredible milestone to me – an entire decade. And that seems like it was just yesterday. How is it possible that you change and grow so much – yearly, monthly, weekly… sometimes even daily. It is constantly surprising to me how grown up you seem – staying home alone, owning your own phone, calling your friends, making your lunch. It’s a joy to watch you mature into such a fantastic young lady; I actually really love spending time with you and having grown up conversations and laughing at your quick wit.
You are constantly dancing to TikTok videos, watching the same shows on Netflix over and over, taking over my Spotify playlist whenever we are in the car, singing wherever you go. You are writing in a journal every night now, and reading in your bed before lights out, and talking to yourself in the shower. You love your friends fiercely and you get along so well with your siblings that even their friends invite you to their birthday parties! You love understated colors and picking out new outfits and asked for a gift card for your birthday to buy home décor, because well, isn’t that what all eleven-year-olds want?
Apart from how beautiful and funny and smart you are, I love you the most because you are kind and considerate and thoughtful – when I realize how much of a sweet personality you have I feel proud, because maybe, just maybe, these past eleven years of parenting experiments have somehow managed to work out just fine 😊
Keep on being the beautiful (inside and out) person that you are – I can’t wait to see what the next eleven years hold.
Love,
Mama
