Baila Bee, I can't believe I missed your birthday post. It's certainly not because your NINTH birthday was without much fanfare and excitement! Your birthday fell during recital week. And what a week it was! You took three dance classes this year which meant three dances, three costumes and, as luck would have it, three different nights of performing. We were worn out, you were positively energized! The last performance fell on the day after your birthday and your Papa and Bushia and Grammie and Grandma all came from Toledo to see you. Afterwards, we had a perfectly pink party complete with a three tier pink cake to celebrate you.I wish I could express to you the joy that comes from watching you perform. You are amazing, you light up from within, you shine. I am actually brought to tears watching you. Last year, you were very shy about performing in front of us. We begged and bribed but you would not do it. And then came last year's recital and something happened, you came alive on stage and have not looked back since. You were invited to audition for the competitive team and you just gave it all you had. No one surprised when you were offered a spot in the junior competitive team. I am looking forward to seeing what this talent takes you.
At the end of this school year, you brought home an award from your teacher, she named you, Baila Firecracker Lakatos. Boy, does she know you Baila Elizabeth! You are a firecracker at home, at school, at dance and everywhere you go. You are full of joy and excitement and passion and emotion. You had perfect attendance this past school year and you excel and meet expectations at every turn.
You also make friends everywhere you go. With much hesitation, I sent you to overnight camp for four days with Eli and some friends. I was so worried about you being homesick and so far away but you loved every single minute of it and the strangers you met when you arrived where you best friends at the end of four days. You have so much confidence it astounds me. Even though the sun seems to shine on you and you are beautiful and smart and talented and funny, you are simply one of the kindest little girls I have ever known.
What makes you so special Baila is your sensitive and loving heart. You feel and perceive what others do not. You have such capacity for love and empathy. You crave the heart to heart connection that only a mother and daughter can share and it's such a gift to give you all the love you demand.
You are such a little pig. You leave clothes and books and bags and markers and notebooks in your constant wake. You are always creating. Drawing, writing, imgaining...you are oblivious to the disaster that follows. I have taken to calling you my little piggie. You clean your room by shoving everyting in your huge closet. Every few months, I take out lare garage bags of trash from that closet and you never miss a thing! It took me an hour to sort out all of the millions of things you brought home on the last day of school! The bag was so heavy, you sat on the sidewalk and cried because you couldn't carry it all the way home from the bus stop!
Every night we have a ritual. When I'm tired, I tend to miss the blessing of spending this special time with you. I tuck you and Princess Emily in, tell you sweet dreams and we brainstorm what you can dream about. You always make me promise I will check on you before I go to bed.
Baila, my wish for you is that you always have sweet dreams and I will always be here for you as long as God gives me life because you are my girl!!!
