The big 14th birthday promise

Somebody hold me… My oldest is 14! 😲 How do these years go by so quickly?! K is blossoming into the most loving, and nurturing young woman. Who knew when she was my little spitfire that she would be discerning becoming a nun once she finishes school.

 She has been looking forward to this specific birthday ever since she was 4 years old. For reasons we can no longer remember, Kevin told her then that he would let her drive on her 14th birthday. Every year she would remind him of his promise and every year it seemed like 14 was a lifetime away…yet here we are. Kevin kept his promise and the two of them spent a good chunk of the day in a mall parking lot driving our van and they ended with a special father daughter coffee date. Later on we had the family of her closest friend (a family we all love and are close to, actually) come over for some delicious sugar free, gluten free, dairy free, egg free chocolate cake. I promise it was incredible! They brought her the sweetest rose plant which was really quite the perfect surprise. She had told me nearly a year ago she wanted roses on her 14th birthday in honor of St. Terese. I love when things work out like that.

This year she requested that I knit her a gold shawl instead of our traditional birthday sweater. I had her pick the pattern herself because I wanted to make sure she would really like it. Knitting for teenagers is different than knitting for toddlers who have no opinion on what they wear. Ha,ha. Thankfully she still loves my knitted gifts. She chose the Afterglow shawl.  I made a couple of modifications to make it the way she wanted. My rav notes on it are here.  Shawl pin is of course by our favorite makers – Wooly Moss Roots.

Okay, I need a minute again. My baby is so grown up! 😭 I am not ready for this!! Wasn’t she 4 just yesterday?! Days like this remind me of how grateful I am for our birthday ring tradition. I can look at all the ornaments we carefully chose each year to represent our child’s growth or interest and instantly be brought back to that year of their life. It rather eases the pain of their growing. This year’s ornament was supposed to be a car but I somehow forgot to order it 😵 so one of L’s train ornaments is temporarily in its place. Oops. Oh well. It will be there for her next birthday along with all the memories of this one.

**You know your daughter loves you when she will wear her birthday crown for you…then she goes to put it on and it doesn’t fit. D’oh! Guess I need to loosen the elastic. Her head has grown since I made it when she was just 2 years old!