Someday I Will Miss This Chaos: November 2013

10 whole years ago we welcomed our first child into this world. I cannot believe it has been that long, honestly. I've been a mom for an entire decade. It's been thrilling, exciting, challenging, and I really can't wait to see what the next decade holds.

Riley has had an exciting year, and perhaps the highlight was having her drawing published in the June Highlights. She was so excited to receive an official letter saying her drawing of the Statue of Liberty would be printed. The local newspaper even did a story on her, and the village honored her with a plaque. (I really should update the blog more often to highlight this.)

She had a great school year, and she's already excelling in fourth grade. Her teacher loves her, and Riley is definitely thriving. Soccer is going well, for the most part. She tried out and made the travel team, and there have been some growing pains. She's currently playing indoor soccer with her coach from last year, and it's nice to see her have the fire back.

Riley cannot get enough of her youngest cousin, Jack. She is going to make a great babysitter in a couple of years. Whenever we get together with friends who have younger kids, most of the time she doesn't complain about not having anyone to play with. Instead, she gravitates toward the younger kids and plays with them. And of course she's beyond excited that she will have another little cousin to play with in May (and she's desperately hoping it's a girl!).

Life as a 10-year-old girl I"m sure will have plenty of challenges. There are already instances where she lets her emotions get the best of her, and I know this is just the beginning. She's struggling to find her place and deal with harder life-related problems. It's not going to be easy for any of us, that's for sure. I know this is part of life with her growing up, but I admit that it's hard. I miss the days of her never-ending laughter, but at the same time she's so helpful when she wants to be.

I hope she knows how much we love her and are proud of the child she's become. She is so smart, doing her fifth-grade level math. She's constantly reading whenever she has down time and she still loves to just sit and color. She's a people-pleaser who is always thinking of others. For her birthday this year she wanted to donate items to the local animal shelter. That was all her idea. She's our beautiful, loving, compassionate child, and we love her so very much. Happy double-digit birthday, Riley. We love you!