Maddie Turns TWELVE!

It seems impossible, but Maddie is turning twelve today. Here are twelve things I love about my daughter:
Maddie at six months
1. She's good with siblings. She's an excellent sitter and knows better than just about anyone how to keep Joss happy. I'm so grateful to have a trustworthy helper at home.

2. So capable at so many things: violin, reading, math, swimming, singing, memorizing her lines. We don't realize how difficult some of these things are until we look at other kids trying to do them. Maddie makes it look easy.

Maddie and Will, Maddie at 2 1/2
3. She is a voracious reader -- keeping her in books this summer has been like supplying hydrogen to the sun! While cleaning up the family library last week, Rob and I realized that she's read a lot more than even we knew about!

4. Curious and inquisitive. She has pored over all of the DK encyclopedias we own and I honestly think she has Oh Yuck! and Oh Yikes! memorized.
Maddie and Will, Maddie at 3
5. She knows what she loves; Shakespeare, Shakespeare, and Shakespeare. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Fablehaven, Artemis Fowl, Pendragon and even the occasional movie . . .

6. She is a loyal friend. when she finds one, she keeps them -- forever. And she's managed to find at least one soul mate wherever she's been.

Maddie without braces, last month
7. Maddie is omnivorous. She'll try food of almost any ethnicity, and she loves empanadas and tortilla de patata and squid rings and thai curry and chicken tikka masala.

8. When we throw her in the river, she swims. Time and again we've asked Maddie to do ridiculously difficult things, like take 6 weeks of first grade in Austria, or half of third grade in Berlin. We put her in strange groups of kids or in class with BYU students, ask her to translate Primary for a family from Arizona or to wheel a mammoth cart of suitcases across terminals at JFK, and Maddie just goes with it. Or as she would say: "Book XI: Harry, I must once again ask too much of you."
Maddie after the cousin makeover last month
9. Her punny sense of humor straight from Opa and her puzzled indignation that not everyone finds them as funny as she does.

10. She loves sleuthing; she devours Nancy Drew books even now and loves to visit the "Ogren Wood" to look for mysteries, pick flowers and hang out over the stream.

11. She loves to do girly things, but she thinks she's a tomboy. The very best combination.

12. That even as I type this she's playing Harry Potter with her brothers in the living room.

We love you Maddie Lou!

Comments

Ann said…
Happy Birthday. ANd did Rob sleep after seeing that makeover picture? Gorgeous and grown-up, whatever will you do?
Anonymous said…
Amen to everything you said. Happy Birthday, Maddie!
Love, Grandpa and Grandma
ashley said…
Seems like yesterday our girls were walking around in diapers and their favorites were Teletubbies and hotdogs...how time flies and how beautiful is Maddie Lou! Happy Birthday from you old downstairs neighbors! XXOO
Megan said…
Happy Birthday Maddie! She is soooo beautiful.
M-L said…
I love Maddie! she is so nice to all and especially to my 2 much younger girls! Happy belated birthday!
Brinaghs said…
She is so Beautiful!!! You guys better watch ouT!!!!!

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