Malia is one of the youngest kids in her grade. With a late August birthday and a September 1 school cutoff date, she was actually still only 4-years-old when she started kindergarten. And being the youngest is kind of a sticking point for her. Not in any real way, but she does joke about it, complain with joviality, take some well humored licks from her friends, etc. As such, finally turning fourteen was kind of a big deal.
We had her fancy dino nugget cake a couple of weeks ago and she has a small shindig with two of her close friends planned for tomorrow (there is a sing-a-long big screen showing of “K-Pop Demon Hunters” which is her current favorite movie/obsession) but today was pretty mellow. We did make some efforts to set her big 14 apart though. Kevin has been in Philly for work this week, so it was just Malia and I enjoying birthday cake pancakes before she set off for school. Kevin took the first flight out of Philly this morning so he would be home in time to celebrate with Malia, so he was home before dinner. We took her out to eat at Olive Garden, one of her favorite safe food restaurants, and she ate fried cheese sticks, one of her favorite eating out food items, and chicken alfredo. Nathan has an interpreting job downtown bright and early tomorrow morning, so he drove down this afternoon and joined us for dinner.
In terms of presents, Nathan enlisted the help of one of his roommates and 3D printed tiny articulated versions of Toothless and the Light Fury from the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies, which are some of Malia’s all-time favorites. Kevin and I had gave her a package of throw pillows that look just like her beloved dino nuggets and once they had a bit of time to recover from being vacuum packed, Nathan and Malia had a pillow fight. Our other present for Malia was purchased several months ago and is one that she already knew about. She has tickets to the Benson Boone concert in October. He is one of her favorite recording artists and while he has had several performances nearby in the past year, we haven’t been able to get her tickets to any of those. So, she is super, duper excited about being able to go to the upcoming concert.
Malia has grown up a lot in the past year. She is taller than me, a fact which gives her much satisfaction. In fact, the height difference is significant enough that even though I was wearing tall shoes on Daniel’s wedding day, she is still visibly taller than I am. Which she loves! She has outgrown some of her most timid tendencies and is more confident in herself than she has been in the past. She has a sharp sense of humor and can hold her own in pretty much any group. She is finding that sometimes it’s ok to dress up a little bit and having a brand-new older sister to give her some tips has been great. She is funny and talkative and artistic and, in many ways, a typical giggly teenage girl. And we all love her. So happy birthday to my girl child. I’m so grateful that she is in my life and will talk to me about our favorite boy bands and isn’t too terribly embarrassed to be seen in public with me. 😜
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