The birthday girl...

On Saturday my little Muffin (aka, Muffin Puffin, Muffioli, and at least 10 others) turned 8. 8 is huge for me. I don't know why, but 8 seems to be the turning point of "little girl" to all "grown up". She is now in her new room in the basement and she loves it. She loves her independence and privacy and more than anything, she likes to feel grown up. She has always been like this! Maybe it's a girl thing...

A bit about our dear Muffin... ( who actually does have a real name - but for the blogging world, we use her nickname)

From the time she was born, she has had no fear and a sense of adventure. She has also always been a monkey - good thing she has always had the balance to back it up! When she was 14 months old she insisted on riding her wooden rocking horse standing up. We had a slate tile floor - she used to scare the crap out of me! But... the more worked up I got, the funnier she thought it was... and kept doing it not only more, but faster as well. So I finally gave up and thought she will quit when she falls... but, she never fell!

Muffin was early at everything, while it seemed normal to me at the time, I can now revel in the amazement of it. She was saying 2 words sentences at 9 months! Yes... at nine months! She would say "Hi Baby" (that's what she called me, cause that's what I called her...lol) Bye bye, Hi Puppy etc.. I think signing at an early age helped her talk early.
At 14 months she could work the VCR by herself. When I would have a shower, I could instruct her to put a baby Einstein video in and she would.
At 18 months, she new all of her shapes including octagons, trapezoids and parallelograms.
By the age of 2 she was ready for kindergarten! She knew all of her ABC's, 123's etc...
She was reading chapter books at kindergarten and is now testing at a grade level 4 instead of 2.

Muffin is not only gifted academically, but her coordination, balance and strength has always been advanced as well. She is that kid in school that you envy - you know the one that seems to be able to do everything perfectly, even when they have never done it before? She excels at gymnastic which is her main sport... but whenever I put her in anything else - the teachers are shocked by her ability. They all want her full time, and it really makes it difficult. Her TaeKwonDo teacher is amazed at her.. and in fact she just won a squatting competition there a couple weeks ago... out of over 100 kids up to age 15! She just started soccer this spring and her footwork is incredible.. she plays with third yr players, and she is easily one of the best players after only 2 practices! She just had a horse riding lesson... the instructor was again amazed, she says she has 9 and 10 yr olds who have been riding for a long time that still can't apply enough leg/foot pressure to make the horse turn. She also was shocked at how natural horse riding came to her - so she allowed her to trot on her first lesson, which she says she never does! I could go on... but I really don't want this to be a brag blog - which I really am not intending to do - it's just who she is. It's sickening really! lol.

Muffin as a person - she is very nurturing and mothering. This comes natural to her. She also has a keen sense of empathy... and is compelled to help the underdog. She always strives to make sure everyone is included and happy. Equally though.. she can be a bit of a softy, and her feelings do get hurt. She has a great sense of humour and loves to live on the wild side. She is not afraid to try anything... whether it be food, or a new activity. She loves to dance, sing and act crazy... she's got a fair bit of energy to go around!

She is a happy little girl that loves life to the fullest!

Happy Birthday my darling angel!