Yesterday, Catie turned 8 years old.

Most years, I try to write a blog post talking about what my girls are like at this age, at this moment, to try to capture them for future reference. I mean, I never did baby books, so this is basically it, you know?

I don’t think I can really do that with Catie anymore. She’s gotten to this age where most of the time, blogging about her feels like an invasion of her privacy. She’s complicated, she’s challenging, she’s difficult, and she’s also amazing and wonderful.

Seven has been the hardest year we’ve had by far — possibly excluding the newborn phase when I was crazy from post-partum hormones and sleep deprivation. It’s really thrown me for a loop. I mean, the toddler years were hard, of course, but then I felt like we hit a groove around the time Catie turned four. Four was great! I could reason with four. And then from 4 through 6, each year got progressively more and more fun.

Then 7 hit, and it’s weird, I have friends who talk about how second graders are the hardest, and I’m starting to think that maybe they aren’t joking. Because this has been the year that made me question my own parenting abilities more than any other. 7 has kicked my butt.

—————————————————————————–

We’re not doing Catie’s birthday party until this weekend, and we’re just doing a little party at our house with her cousins and a couple of friends from school. But since yesterday was her actual birthday, my parents came over for dinner, we had Birthday Brownies (as shown in the pic above), and she opened her presents from us.

Funny story: way back at Christmas, Catie asked for a stuffed/plush bearded dragon. I searched online, but could not find one anywhere. There was a lady on Etsy who used to make them, but she closed her Etsy shop when she went back to graduate school.

So, I went on Twitter to ask if anyone knew where to get one. And lo, through the power of social media, a Twitter friend happened to know someone who can sew stuffed animals, she saw a picture of a bearded dragon, and said, “yeah, I bet I can make that.” I sent her a couple of pictures of Spyro Jones, and you guys, she even matched his color scheme and everything.

Needless to say, that was a huge hit. Catie loves him.

She brought it to bed with her last night, and snuggled with him while she watched cartoons this morning before school. She asked if she could take it to her dad’s “for when I start to miss the real Spyro Jones.”

For reference, that’s the real Spyro Jones. He’s gotten slightly huge.

(And of course, yes, I let her take the toy bearded dragon to Dave’s. How can you say no that?)

I feel like Catie is just on the cusp of a lot of changes, most of them good, and I can’t wait to see what 8 has in store for us.

Happy birthday, Catie-bug! We love you to the moon and back.