12 (For Noah)

Over the past week, I've drafted at least a dozen happy birthday posts in my mind for you -- I wanted to write something special to celebrate your big day.  All of the versions had something in them about what an amazing person I think you are and how proud I am of everything you've accomplished so far in your twelve years of life, about how exciting (and truthfully, a little sad) it's been to see how much you've grown and changed in the past twelve months, about how you're entering into the years where the opinions of your peers will matter so much to you, but how I hope with all my heart you'll remember that what matters most is that you remain true to yourself.  And then as I reviewed each of those versions in my head, I realized that they were all very likely to be seen as "embarrassing" to your newly-minted twelve year old self.  So I'm not going to write any of that stuff here.  (I think you already know it all in your heart, anyway.)  I'm just going to wish you the very happiest of birthdays, Noah, and an exciting year of further finding your way in the big, beautiful world.  I know without a doubt you're going to go far.

xo Mom