Happy Birthday Anya!
It was very exciting when my cousin delivered a baby girl because well, in our family we are partial to girls. My family meaning me and my girls. We were all very excited to add another girl to the family, and we immediately knew we would have to travel to Boston to welcome her to the fold.
We didn't get there until a year later. The first thing I remember was her standing at the window of their house, her little hands and face pressed against it looking out at us. Then she was at the door looking up at us. Way up at us. She was the tiniest person I had ever seen in my life. I don't know if I had just forgotten what it was like to have a little baby around or if she really was the tiniest thing ever.
We immediately fell in love. She was cute and cuddly and my girls loved playing with her like she was their own personal doll. One of the things we all remember about her back then was how she would shake her head and shout, "Nononononononononono!" My girls still use that sometimes to this day.
We were with her when she got her first pair of shoes....which she didn't care for and we all felt so bad at trying to put shoes on this kid that just wanted to be free to be barefoot. Except it was March and snowing!
We were also there to show her the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. That she liked. Like her cousins Cara and Darcy she is a water girl.
Darcy likes to believe that Anya got her love of reading from her since she read to her when she was little. Anya LOVES reading and has read so much in her twelve years that each Christmas and birthday we have a very hard time finding books she hasn't read.
If you can't find Anya you know she is off somewhere reading. She has a book in her hand or near her body all of the time. It is also one of the few times she is still. She is very active. I think of her as a little bouncing object that is constantly in motion. She dances. She twirls. She hops up and down. She jigs sideways. She sits. She stands. And she is always talking, telling everyone around her stories, facts, history, interesting topics she discovered, and anything else that pops into her brain. She is full of information and very, very smart.
While she does argue with her little brother at times she is also very loving and protecting of him. She won't like to admit that, but she is. I see it when they play together or when she tells him stories or makes up games for them to play.
She loves animals real and stuffed, and knows all about every animals from tiny ants to large whales. She knows more information than Encyclopedia Brown, I bet. Everyone in the family wants her on his team when we play trivia games.
I can't believe that the little girl I met so many years ago is twelve today. She isn't little anymore, but tall, and lean, and very much like one of the ballerina's in a jewelry box; sparkling, twirling, musical. She has brought much joy to our family and we love her dearly and would give her a BIG birthday squeeze if she were here. Happy Birthday Anya! Hope your birthday and birthday week are the greatest ever!
P.S. Gift coming later. (sigh)
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