My beautiful girl, my angel, my baby, my princess is 7 today. How did that happen? How did that gorgeous, solid little baby grow up into the tall, confident, independent girl she is today? How did she get more beautiful every day? How is it I am more proud of her every day? I could write a book about my love for my daughter, as I'm sure many of us could, but I will try to keep it brief(ish) and celebrate the seven years I've shared with this amazing little person.

At 7, girls are three quarters of their adult height. How can that be possible? She still seems tiny to me, but maybe my glasses have got a bit rose-tinted there. Because we measured her and she's on track to be exactly as tall as her Mummy.

At 7, my girl is a wonderful bunch of contradictions. She is confident, independent and street-wise, but she is naive and almost baby-like in other ways.

My daughter stands out in a crowd. No doubt I'm a bit biased here, but in a group of kids she just SHINES. Her long hair, her glasses and, most of all, her smile, mean she gets noticed. She concentrates and listens so hard - you can see it in her eyes. She takes everything on board and she does her best. And her best is GOOD. Her best is often brilliant. She's the one you can hear speaking in the class assembly, the one who has to show the rest of the swimming class how to do it properly, the one who gets a solo in the dance class.

Until she got her glasses, she was a shy, retiring little flower but with her glasses she grew in confidence. She has no fear about speaking in assembly or dancing the solo - she loves it, she wants to do it, she thrives on the attention.

She loves to draw. She can sit quietly and amuse herself for hours with drawing and, yes, her drawing is pretty good! She had a picture printed in the paper the other day. Was she pleased? No, because hers wasn't the winner - it was only one of the 'fantastic entries'. In her mind, she hadn't done well enough. In my mind, she'd done brilliantly.


She is independent, she takes far better care of herself than her brothers do. She can be trusted to get her clothes out and to get dressed and get her teeth and hair brushed without nagging. She loves to wrap presents and doesn't need to be supervised. She's keeping her own record of who is coming to herbirthday party and I know I don't need to check it. She is conscientious and reliable.

With two big brothers she knows things her eldest brother would never have known at 7 - inappropriate words and phrases - and she watches programmes that aren't really designed for a 7 year old. If her brothers pick on her she yells back at them. She won't take any nonsense from them.


But she is cute. Somehow, things which her brothers knew at this age have passed her by. She is naive. She has no idea about money, about how much things should cost. If you let her, she would give all her money away to charity and to her brothers. She can't tell the time at all - either on a digital or analogue clock. She thought 10.10 on a digital clock was '10 to 10' and seeing the hands pointing to quarter to three, she asked me if it was 'nine to three or three past nine?'.

She is the girl who gets lifted into and out of bed every night and every morning. We find ourselves picking her up and holding her like a toddler while we're watching her brothers' rugby. Despite the fact that she is three quarters of my size!

She is so affectionate. She loves to be cuddled and her eyes light up with joy at the sight of me or Daddy. She just wants to squeeze us as tight as she can. Wherever we go, she holds my hand. I don't make her, she chooses to. Even when we are standing indoors waiting for something - a party or a dance lesson - she will hold my hand because she wants to.

Perhaps her most adorable quality of all is her love for her Teddy Teddy came into our lives nearly three years ago and he never leaves her arms, apart from when she is at school.



So that's my beautiful girl at 7. A bunch of contradictions that make up a really special little person. Happy birthday, sweetheart. Mummy and Daddy love you so much.