Elise at 7

When Elise turned 3 years old, she begged for a snow white dress for her birthday, and she wanted a pink princess cake. She received the dress and wore it exclusively for days, changing only at night into her pjs. She danced and twirled and hummed to her heart's content.
Fast forward four years...Elise turned 7 this December. We postponed the friend-birthday-party till after the holidays. Here she is the night of her party. The dress up clothes have been replaced by a real dress. She brushed her own hair and accessorized with stick-on ear rings. The princess birthday theme is long gone, replaced by a "Girls' Night Out" theme. She and her friends ate at a pretend restaurant (Madilyn was the the waitress, and I was the chef), had their fingernails painted, and danced in the living room with a disco ball casting twinkling, colorful lights on the walls.

Elise at 7:
She is the first to offer help when baby Charlotte is crying. And no matter how much Charlotte wails, Elise stays calm...saying softly as she looks at her sister "Just tell me all about it."

She loves friends. She reaches out to everyone in her first grade classroom, has playdates, and gets lots of phone calls on the weekends. She volunteers to be Carter's partner (a boy with mental disabilities) when no one else will.

She likes clothes, much like her Aunt Katie. She asks me "does this match?" and loves any excuse to wear a dress. She wants to grow her hair long "so that she can wear it in a bun."

She plays music. She owns a Hannah Montana cd and borrows my Mama Mia cd, and between the two always has music playing in her bedroom. She has made great strides with the violin, and is much more self-motivated about practicing.

And though so much has changed in four years, here's what has stayed the same: her sweetness, her gentleness, her kindness, her sensitivity, and her desire to please others.

Happy Birthday, Elise.