My eight year old

My oldest child is now 8.

It's actually a scientific mystery. We should be studied and written about in the top medical journals.

You see, my daughter keeps getting older, but I've stayed the same age since she was born.

Weird, right?

Maia is at that tender age where she is flirting with maturity and self-realization, yet still demonstrates bits of that beautiful oblivion childhood offers.

It's hard to remember what a difficult baby she was for the first 9 months of her life because now Maia is wonderfully pleasant and easy going.

A few weeks ago at dinner Maia asked, "What if Ruby and I were the first scientists in the family?" Aleks and I exchanged looks and I exclaimed, "That would be wonderful! What do I need to do to help facilitate that?"

Maia shows intellectual curiosity, while demonstrating a strong moral and social ethic. She loves to read and often gets distracted from tasks by the book in hand. Much of her personality is like her father, but she gets the reading gene from me.

Maia is also still very creative. She can often be heard singing around the house, either songs from the radio or ones she's written herself. The other day she told us the title of her album: "A little kid, inspired by." She is still playing piano and I think she enjoys it. At any rate, she tolerates it with a co-operative attitude.

Maia is a wonderful friend and sister. Her relationship with Ruby is constantly evolving. Those two girls are different as can be, but I'm grateful that they have each other and can learn different communication styles. I see Maia developing a more of a backbone as she stands up to Ruby not infrequently. This, of course, cause some strife in the household, but with patient parenting we can usually help the girls resolve their conflicts.

Maia is playing basketball and finally seems to have found a sport that she's excited about. While athletics are not innately easy for her, Maia does not give up and is constantly improving.

My darling girl is such a steady force in our family. Her dependability balances out the eccentricities of her sister and the sometimes high stress schedules of her parents. Life without Maia would be a life without the sun.

I'm so grateful that not only do I love her, but I really like my darling firstborn.

Happy 8th birthday, dearest one.