happy birthday, Lilly!

Lilly turns 12 today.  Twelve.

"It's my last year of being a 'tweener," she informed me the other day. 

I had to think about that.  It seems hard to believe that anyone might mistake Lilly for anything other than a teenager.  For one thing, she is tall; tall for her age and especially tall for a girl in our family.

And Lilly is strong.  She can punt a soccer ball farther than I could carry it even on my best day.

And she is fearless.  Lilly insists on watching scary movies in the dark.  "It's scarier that way," she says.  Then, when the movie is over, she's not afraid to go down in the basement or out in the yard.  And when Lilly is in goal, she will fall on a soccer ball as though it is a live landmine and it is up to her to save an entire village of orphans (makes me cringe just to think about it!).

Recently, one of Lilly's teachers told me that some of her classmates had singled Lilly out as the "kind of kid who could do anything." And I believe it.

Still, there is something very child-like about Lilly.  And I mean that in the best possible way.

She still goes trick-or-treating on Halloween, and begins planning her costume weeks in advance.

And Lilly still gets excited about her birthday--and isn't ashamed to say so. "Its my birthday in two days, six hours and 42 minutes," she will declare, out of the blue.

And, best of all, Lilly still lets me read with her before bed, a practice her sisters had long since given up by the time they were twelve.

"You know," I said at last.  "There's no rush.  You can be a 'tweener for as long as you want.  Longer, even. Because I like you just the way you are."

Happy Birthday, Lil!