I apologize for what you are about to read and all of the other mushy love notes to my girls recently, actually mostly Belle*, but she has been experiencing a tremendous amount of transformative events in her world and since the whole purpose behind this blog is to be a living, breathing love note to them, I have to make sure I capture it all. In all of the glorious {to me}, perhaps boring {to you}, minute details.
* And as any parent knows, because there has been so much about Belle and all of her many accomplishments, my Lily after reading this, may begin to develop quite a complex. So this coming month, I am going to bring it all back around and focus on some of Lily's amazing accomplishments as she approaches her eighth year of life.
But one more for Belle first...
My lovely little Belle:
I'll never forget the first time I ever heard you sing. It was 2002, you were just barely one and you were strapped into your car seat. You were the fussiest baby especially in the car, but the one thing that always calmed you down was when we played music and turned it up really loudly.
One day we were playing Beautiful by Christina Aguilera, and we could hear you singing from the back seat. This struck Daddy and I as so funny, because you couldn't even talk yet and here you were singing the melody of this song and holding the note when she did. It was like a reflex, every single time we turned on that song, you mellowed out and would hold this one note just like she did, "don't you bring me down todaaaayyy......"
You could barely string two words together, but there you were strapped into that car seat, finally facing forward!, belting out Christina Aguilera.
The next chapter happened many years later, although when I think about it, it had actually been happening all along, but this time someone pointed it out to me, so I noticed. You used to and still do, walk around the house making up songs and singing at the top of your lungs.
We had just moved into our new house and all the windows were opened, and my friend came to get me to go out. She could hear you from her car when she pulled up and she said, "wow, I thought Katie was good but holy shit can Belle sing."
"Really?" I said, quite surprised. I was thinking a little more along the lines of, "man is this kid ever going to shut it up so I get one minute of quiet, EVER?"
But the most memorable time for me was about a year ago, we were in the car headed home and we were listening to Demi Lovato. You sang along to one of her songs, and I nearly just about fell over. Dad and I exchanged glances, he noticed the astonished/what the hell just happened look on my face, and he just shook his head. He shook his head and whispered, "she's really got something."
Ever since that moment, I knew singing was something that was special for you, something that made you special.
This past Friday night, you had your first talent show and sang the Paramore acoustic version of the Foo Fighters song, Hero. After having practiced it for a month and being all ready to go, you got a cough that made you sound like you smoked two packs of butts the night before.
But, you rose above. You sang your song in front of probably two hundred people and you rocked it out. Seeing you walk out across that stage to grab the mic was so incredible for me and I thought back to that day in the car almost nine years ago, when your Dad and I turned around so suspiciously when we heard you singing that song. Our baby, in her car seat, not able to talk yet but belting out a Christina Aguilera song.
You continue to surprise me and sometimes when you sing, I can't help myself from crying. How can one little girl who sprang forth from a woman who couldn't hold a note if her entire life depended on it, sound so beautiful? {Thank god for Drew.}
I adore you and look forward with much anticipation, to all of the beautiful songs that you will sing over the course of your life.
I will always be your biggest fan.
Love always,
Mommy