Eight years. Two thousand nine hundred and twenty-two days. Seventy thousand one hundred and twenty eight minutes. Four million two hundred and seven thousand six hundred and eighty seconds.
Our daughter turns eight today. Unlike last year, there were no tears as she welcomed eight into her life. She has been counting down the days and finally it is here.
Seven has been a big year for her. A year ago she proclaimed that one day her and Paul would move back to Romeo and buy back 449 N. Bailey Street. A year ago she was almost done with first grade. A year ago she hadn’t driven across the United States with me. A year ago she hadn’t even been to San Diego.
The last year has been one adventure after another. She has become our wave hopping beach lover. She has learned to swim. She has started to learn to ride a boogey board. She has become infatuated with nature, wildlife, and learning all about animals. She has mastered addition and subtraction and begun multiplication and division. She has learned how to save $50 of her allowance. She has learned how to stay up super late reading big thick books.
As a seven year old Megan survived six months of sharing a bedroom with her little brother.
Much has changed for Megan in the last 12 months. But some things haven’t. She is still loving and kind. She still loves to trick us. She still loves stories. She still lives in a pretend world, in a good way. She has tried new things like hip hop class. She has been very brave in making new friends at Darnall. She doesn’t even notice/care that she is a minority. She can still out-fart 90% of men in the world. She is still a picky eater.
When we asked Megan how she wanted to celebrate we kind of hoped we could talk her into celebrating over the weekend. She wouldn’t have that. So rather than have much of a party she opted for a family trip to Sea World after school. Last night we shared some Shamu birthday cake with our community group, today she is taking cupcakes to school… and then at noon we are grabbing the kids from school [they have a half day each Tuesday] and spending the rest of the day watching the dolphins, dogs/cats, penguins, and Shamu at our new favorite place on earth.
