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It’s Mazzy’s birthday today!!!! Is it just me or does it feel like she just turned six yesterday? Oh my god, it’s true what they say. You blink and they are all grown. I can’t quite wrap my head around the number seven. That’s one year away from all the years I spent in high school and college combined. Does anyone else compare spans of time to high school? Because high school felt like an entire lifetime. And now Mazzy is almost double that. How did this happen??

As Mazzy becomes more and more of a full-fledged person, I find myself wondering— who is Mazzy exactly? Who will she become?

Here’s what’s I know so far:

1) Mazzy’s smile lights up a room. I know that’s a cliche but it’s true. She bubbles with excitement, bursting into rooms with hugs and happiness for the people she knows, eager to meet anybody new and open to new experiences.

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2) Mazzy suffers from an affliction called “Ants in the Pants.” She’s always been this way, but we used to think it was a toddler thing. Nope. Her affliction shows no signs of going away with age. At dinner, she can’t help herself from leaning on me with one leg off her chair and falls off the chair entirely at least three times per meal. This is not an exaggeration. If I ask her to pose for pictures, she acts like a real life Boomerang. She will fall over her own feet while standing still. Repeatedly.

3) Mazzy loves her friends fiercely. Sometimes I think her friendships mean more to her than her relationship with me or her dad. She wants everyone to like her and sees the good in everyone. She treats everyone fairly and with kindness. Her teachers always describe her as “inclusive” and say she is one of the few kids who plays with both the girls and the boys.

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4) After about five seasons of gymnastics and countless hours practicing at home, Mazzy can now do a cartwheel. Kind of.

5) Mazzy is very affectionate. She craves snuggle time and loves to give kisses, often numerous kisses at once. She gives me big tight meaningful hugs before I leave her in the morning at school. She is incredibly affectionate with Harlow, sometimes to the point where Harlow is like— Okay! Enough!

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6) Mazzy is a hoarder. Everything is special and worthy of being saved— class Valentine’s Day cards that only have the person’s name signed at the bottom, Shopkins glossaries (even though they are all the same), packaging from her American Girl Doll— “it can be her bed!” It’s a problem that I hope we can resolve by the time she turns eight.

7) Mazzy is really proud of my book. It actually showed up at her school book fair recently and she made a big point of bringing over her friends to show it to them. “This is my mom’s book! SHE WROTE IT.” Oh man, does it feel good to feel pride from the other side.

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8) Mazzy’s best days are the days when there is non-stop action. She does not like to laze around the house. She wants back to back plans and playdates and a full line-up of activities. This is one reason why sightseeing in Copenhagen went over so well. It is one of the few times when Mike and I had more planned for the kids than we could reasonably accomplish in a day. Best case scenario for Mazzy.

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9) Mazzy believes in girl power, which includes the freedom to be or do whatever she wants. Many of you saw when Mazzy drew the pic of Hillary Clinton and placed it on the post-it wall in the NYC subway station. She is really excited about the prospect of having a female president one day, but she is clear— she does not want that job herself. If you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, she says “an ice cream seller.”

“How about owning the store, Mazzy?”

“Nah.”

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10) Mazzy still loves sweet but is starting to appreciate savory. She is now open to the possibility that there is a world of food beyond chicken nuggets and hot dogs. It has been a big culinary year. Not only does she love salmon, one of the big breakthroughs back in 2015, Mazzy also now likes chicken and broccoli from a Chinese restaurant, chicken teriyaki from a Japanese restaurant, chicken bhuna masala from an Indian restaurant and (this is major)— spaghetti WITH MEATBALLS AND SAUCE. We can now take her pretty much everywhere.

11) That being said, Mazzy still wants to eat most of these things with a heaping side of ketchup.

12) Mazzy may have many friends, but she still considers Harlow her best friend. She is an incredible big sister. Wednesday night, I took Mazzy to an event that would have been a little too much for Harlow to handle. Mazzy loved it but was sad that Harlow wasn’t there to experience it with her. At the end of the night, everyone got a stuffed animal to take home and Mazzy asked if she could take one for Harlow. Honestly, I would not have thought of it myself. The first thing Mazzy did when she got home was place it next to Harlow, who was fast asleep in bed, so she would see it first thing when she woke up.

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13) Mazzy loves to film YouTube challenges. I can’t even tell you how many she has made me film over the last few months. The ideas come to her and no matter how half-baked they are, she wants me to immediately get my camera out, film it, edit it and post it on YouTube. I haven’t posted nearly all of them (I will spare you from the time she challenged herself to rip off all the fridge magnets at top speed) but if you haven’t seen them yet, I highly recommend “The Cookie Challenge,” “The Bean Boozled Challenge,” and “The Lip Balm Challenge.” (If you really want to give Mazzy a birthday present, subscribe to our YouTube Channel!)

14) Mazzy is becoming a very good skier. Last year, after a few seasons of ski school, Mazzy was ready to ski with the adults for the first time. We could take her on pretty tough terrain and know she would be fine. Not because she is a daredevil, but because she takes things at a pace where she still feels confident. She loves going through trees and taking small jumps, but is never reckless about it. It was wonderful letting her go and realizing that I could trust her not to try anything too dangerous.

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15) Mazzy loves to draw. That’s the talent of hers that impresses me the most. She likes drawing people mainly and pays lots of attention to expressions, hairstyles and clothing details. This year, she took a comic book drawing class after school which taught her to step outside of her usual box. I mean, check out these awesome robots with their robot dog!

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16) Mazzy is very astute when it comes to the misogyny of our male dominated world. I’m kidding. Kind of. That’s just my very fancy way of saying, Mazzy does not like the game Old Maid. The other day, I was trying to teach her the rules when she said, “I don’t understand, Mom. What’s so bad about the Old Maid? She looks nice and she has a cat. Maybe it should be bad to be THIS guy!” She held up the card with the Optometrist. “You’re right, Mazzy. This is a terrible game.” Then we played Go Fish.

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17) Mazzy still thinks magic is real. She believes the real princesses live at Walt Disney World, that the tooth fairy leaves her money when she loses her teeth and that Santa may not be the guy we saw dressed up on the street the other day, but the real one does exist somewhere. Like in the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular and at Macy’s.

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18) Speaking of the Tooth Fairy, Mazzy is holding on to her two front teeth like her life depended on it. She noticed they were both loose months ago but has been actively avoiding using them to make sure they stay in her mouth for as long as possible. I’m not sure what this says about her.

19) When Mazzy saw the picture below, she said, “We look like the same person.” I take that as a huge compliment.

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20) Mazzy is melting the Grinch in Mike. Mike has always been very anti-Christmas tree even though many of our Jewish friends have started to put them up during the holidays. Last night, Mike came up to me after the kids had gone to bed.

“Mazzy wants to get a Chirstmas tree for the house. I thought maybe we could just put lights on one of the trees outside. Do you have a problem with that?”

“Uhhh…I don’t have a problem with that. I thought you had a problem with that.”

“We can make them blue and white. It would make her so happy. ”

“Done.”

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Happy Birthday, Mazzy! You are the brightest shiniest star.