Today Lydia turned 12. I can’t believe it! Lily kicked off her birthday with a German Pancake breakfast. Over breakfast, Lydia talked to Georgia and opened some gifts.
In the evening they had cake!
I was sad to miss Lydia’s birthday after school. I was in Salt Lake hosting clients until late. I thought of her today and what a special girl she is and wrote her the below birthday note.
Hey Sweetie,
As I now lead an enterprise sales team, I’m downtown with clients while they are all at our annual conference. I’m so sorry I won’t spend this evening with you, but I know we will have a lot of fun skiing and going to Brian Regan and so I truly hope you know how much I love you.
I could not have dreamed or wished for a better daughter. You are responsible, deeply sweet and compassionate, humble, self-aware, hard-working, smart and persistent. Most important to me though, is your ability to grow and progress. The harp is just one example of how you have started with something you didn’t know how to do, worked very hard at it, even when you disliked it extremely, and now you create sounds that are hard to believe exist (because they are so beautiful!). Mrs. Mason was so blown away she told me three or four separate times with great excitement how beautiful and amazing your harp playing was. I am so so so so proud of you.
But it’s not just the harp that progress at. you progress at everything in your life. When you determined to get good at reading, you put in the work and got good at it. When you have been less than kinds in the past, you listen humbly when you are corrected, you apologize sincerely, and then you correct your behavior. This regular pattern of self-awareness, humbly growing and improving yourself with each day has led you to become the most magnificent, golden, talented, smart, kind and capable 12-year-old I could ever imagine having.
You take care of your siblings and set an example for them of responsibility. You entertain them. You orchestrate plays and dance numbers to involve them. You play with them. You are kind in your social interactions. You love learning. you care about being good. You apologize when you are wrong. You are endlessly forgiving of me and mom when we are tired, grouchy or just aren’t being our best selves.
You are also so fun! I love to ski with you, listen to comedy with you, play dolls with you, talk with you about the universe, and hear about your school and social life.I also love to hike and backpack with you and the list goes on and on. I also love how much you get excited about celebrating holidays. You are so festive! You are so fun to have in our family, and our family is more loving, more beautiful, more happy and more complete with you in it.
Again, I’m so sorry to not be with you on your special day, but I hope this note lets you know how endlessly proud I am of who you are becoming and how much I love you. May this be your best year yet, and just know that mom and I are always always always here for you.
Love, Dad
We love Lydia so much!!!!!