My girl

This is the last photo shoot from the set I took for my dad's birthday present.  Have you guessed a theme?  If not, it's plaid.  My dad loves plaid.  LOVES plaid.  He is known by his kids as the Plaid Dad.  For his birthday, my sister and I made a collage of our collective four kids wearing plaid with a caption that read Plaid Dad: the legacy lives on.  He loved it.

On to my girl.  My sweet girl who ping-pongs between being a huge helper and a six-year-old preteen.  She's wonderfully sweet, totally bossy, and the best tree climber this side of the neighborhood.

Ella is a girly girl.  She loves to wear dresses, loves patterned tights, loves to polish her nails, is trying to grow out her bangs {we had a wee relapse in the process here}, and wants to wear heels.  She asks me to curl her hair nearly everyday.

She is vivacious, energetic, loud, smart, and determined.  She wants badly to be in front of people, but gets shy when put in that position.  She regularly does the laundry and helps put away the dishes she can reach.

She is dramatic and convinced in her own mind.  "Mama, you and dad are going to be grandparents soon.  I'm going to grow up and probably get married and probably have kids and then you will be grandparents and your parents will be dead."  Sorry, mom and dad.  I guess you don't make it to old age.

Nearly everything she says is funny, but she doesn't mean for it to be.  "Mom, sometimes I feel like a princess in Egypt who gets her own way, and sometimes I feel like I'm a slave in a cave in Greece." 

???

She still struggles to read, but I know it will come.  Math is simple for her, and she really enjoys learning anything.  This one is very logical, for all her silliness.  She comprehends concepts beyond her years, but I don't know how that will translate to paper and grades in these elementary years.

She's left-handed, which causes her trouble in writing, but, hey, that's just like her mama, so I find I can be patient in helping with that.

She will take on any challenge and loves a little competition.  Just give the kid a tree and she'll try to climb it.  Challenge her to a race of any kind and she'll give it her all.

She is my shopping buddy, and often helps me choose jewelry and shoes from the closet.  I have wonderful memories of shopping and taking walks with my mom, and I try to foster those moments as often as possible.  Those times helped me get through the rough teen years unscathed, or less scathed, and I am striving to have a habit in place well before those years are upon us.

She is our only girl, and we have given her the task of caring for her brothers.  They are to protect her, she is to care for and nurture them.  They are to be best friends and not tell on each other {needless to say, a work in progress}.

She has become invaluable to me in caring for Nate, though that care has enabled me to delay in teaching him important rules {like coming when called and not fussing}.  I am beginning to see why the baby of a family often stays the baby for life.  It's more than just the parents - this girl would do anything for "her baby."

I love this girl.  I love watching her grow and mature, but I'd like to keep her small forever.  More than with the boys, I struggle with fear for her future.  I want to keep her wrapped up tightly, but I can't.  I have to allow her to figure out how to handle hurt and disappointment.  I am her mother, and Handsome Hero and I are her guides, but ultimately we can't determine her future.  That is in the Lord's hands.  I can't put her in a bubble.

She might like a bubble, though, if there were some pretty dress up clothes in it.