Ayla is 12!!

What?!

That means we’ve been keeping this blog for 12 years as we started it when Ayla was born and we became parents.❤️

I’m not sure I’m good at putting things into words. It feels cheap somehow to take thinks I think about and feel towards my kids- even things I observe- and try to reduce them to language.  It’s difficult for me to say “this is what Ayla is like at age 12.”  But here goes...

This spring Ayla decided she wanted to join band and started playing the trombone. She is very musically inclined and seems to be able to pick up instruments rather quickly. She has an AMAZING singing voice.

I like the way she thinks. She seems to think through things more thoroughly and maturely than most kids her age. She is observant, and feels deeply and is capable of great perspective.

This summer she decided to get baptized at church. It was an awesome day complete with a rainbow halo around the sun!!

She still has her struggles with anxiety and with getting along with her little brother. She is complicated and intense. She considers herself awkward and shy. 

She is a great student and likes to try new things (but not always stick with them.) She is very artistic and spends a ton of time drawing. Her newest thing is to watch animators online and is headed out to Boston in October with Jake for a convention called Scribble Showdown.

So hard to believe she’s heading into 7th grade!!