Girl Mom: Seven

Seven. 

Seven years ago I became a mom. A Girl Mom for the first time. Seven years ago, my life completely changed. Seven years ago, I truly knew what unconditional love meant. Seven years ago, my love for my husband grew. Seven years ago, I set out on an adventure unlike any other.

Seven years ago (on January 26), my oldest honey pie, Gretchen, was born.

Life has never been the same. I'm so grateful.

I thought I'd share a bit in today's Girl Mom post about what it's like being a mom to a seven year old. It's the best wild ride ever!

Gretchen is in 1st grade. She loves to read; she loves school, Barbie's, and princesses. She loves to sing, and loves Taylor Swift. We can totally rock it out to Shake It Off. 

Gretchen has a "boyfriend". His name is Conner. They've been together for over a year, and they've planned their wedding. It's serious. We've met the future in-laws! Ha!

I always thought that I'd be a parent to NOT encourage boyfriend and girlfriend. Some parents think it's adorable, and I never did. And then it happened. Now it's just sort of a running 'joke' (and I mean that lightly) It's just something fun to talk to her about and pretend with her. 

She has the best imagination of what her wedding will be like. (We are encouraging elopement since we'll have three weddings to pay for!) But, she wants a wedding on the beach, and she wants to wear a pink dress. She drew a 5 story house plan the other day and even made a room for mommy and a room for daddy. She told me that we couldn't sleep in the same room! Only, the couple that owned the house would be allowed to sleep in the same rom- ha! However, she informed me that we would have to pay rent!

This has been a great jumping off point for her to learn more about relationships, how things work, and how marriage works. I want to teach her to have positive, healthy relationships. I think her "boyfriend" has allowed us to have conversations that may have waited until she was a teenager, and I want her to be prepared for heartbreak and to be realistic about love and have realistic expectations. 

Do I think she and Conner will get married? No. But, if they did, wouldn't they have a neat story! 

Last spring I made the decision to transfer Gretchen over to my school. It  was one of the hardest decisions I had to make. She loved riding the school bus, and she had met so many friends at school! However, it wasn't the best option for our family, and I wanted to be with her daily. I wanted to be able to attend school functions and parties, and check on her throughout the day. I wanted to be involved and know what was going on. It's been the best decision and now I can't wait for the little girls to be in school and for us to all be together daily! 

However, she's had a harder time making friends than I thought she would. She has the best heart, and can be sensitive. She tries so hard. I like to think that she's a leader. She's stubborn to the core. She's slowly making friends. She has two girls that are good little friends, and I personally think that two best friends are better than a dozen sort of friends. 

When Gretchen was 4, her teacher told me, "Gretchen wants to do what SHE wants to do, when SHE wants to do it." Never have truer words been uttered. She knows exactly what she likes. She knows what she likes to wear, she knows what she likes to play with, what t.v. shows she wants to watch and what her favorite colors are. She knows that she hates bath nights, and that she hates cleaning up her room. 

She loves God. She has faith that is amazingly innocent. She's always asked questions. Always wanted to learn, and hasn't doubted that God loves her. I pray that one day she'll be able to share her faith story and guide other people to Jesus. She loves going to church and reads her children's Bible every chance she gets. We've started doing a mommy/daughter Bible story and she really enjoys us reading it together. It's one of my favorite parts of the week.

Gretchen is 1,010% girl. She will choose to wear a dress any day over wearing pants or shorts! Bonus points if the dress is pink. Thankfully, I'm still able to get away with buying her clothes. I set out 5 outfits for her to choose from for the week; she usually saves the outfits that she hates (the blue jeans) for the end of the week. 

She's currently taking tap and ballet lessons. Some days, I think she absolutely loves it and other days, I can't tell! She also takes soccer in the spring. I obviously want her to be a dancer, like I was- she's tall and thin, and I think she'd make a great ballerina.

 Her daddy wants her to play sports. She tried basketball camp over the summer and decided it was NOT for her! She enjoys soccer though. I think eventually we will try volleyball.

Her favorite t.v. show: Sofia the First

Favorite color: Pink

Favorite food: Pizza, Spaghetti, Peanut Butter & Jelly

Favorite restaurant: Olive Garden & Chicken Fil A

This girl is my world. I am still in awe that I am a mom. Seven years later she amazes me every single day. She frustrates me some days too, but I know that one day, we will be very best friends. 

More than anything in the world, I want her dreams to come true. I want her to have a passion for life. A drive to succeed and do anything she wants. 

Just yesterday, she lost her third tooth. She was able to show me at school, right after it happened! She was so excited and I love that she instantly wanted to show me and share it with me. This girl made me a mom. This girl makes me grow. 

Year seven is going to be fabulous!