Glo Turns 11

I can't believe my baby is turning eleven! The life and times of Glo are definitely passing by too fast for me.

I remember when Glo wasn't even a thought in my mind, and I was talking to someone about having children. She suggested that a mother could pray for qualities that she wanted in her child. She had seen it happen with friends of hers. At the time, I had three very serious and quiet children. I had absolutely no complaints, but I had seen other children that could just bring a smile to anyone's face. Knowing that Glo would probably be my last baby, I prayed to Heavenly Father that I would have a baby that would make me smile. Heavenly Father answered my prayers with Glo.

She makes all of us smile. I can remember when she was little and she would mispronounce all kinds of words, or even just make up her own word if she didn't know what something was called. "Jumpoline" for trampoline, "ridercycle" for a motorcycle, "swimming cool" for a swimming pool. We never wanted to correct her, because we didn't want her to change.

Her name too seems to draw people to her. She was named for my maternal grandmother, Gloria Glover. People are never quite sure what "Glo" stands for, or why in the world I would name my girl "Glo", but they love to say her name. When I pick up Glo from school, it's like running the gauntlet of kids yelling "hi Glo" from the left and right. Kids love Glo. Babies especially love to smile at Glo, and she loves babies.

Glo has friends just like her. Smart, funny, quick-witted girls.

I don't know if it's Glo's personality, or because she is my youngest, but she still loves to crawl into bed with me in the morning. She always has thoughts to share with me, or she likes to review the plans for the day. Yesterday, she first texted me in the morning from her bed, I think to find out if I was awake or not. Here's that conversation:

Glo: It's my birthday!!!!
Me: Happy birthday, girlie!
Glo: Thank you, Mommy.
Me: Do you think we should do something fun today? Like open presents? Or have some cake? Or go to a movie?
Glo: Totally. I'm with you.

Then, she came in and crawled into bed next to me.

Having a birthday at the beginning of October is a tricky thing, especially on a Saturday in our home. Glo pointed out to me when I was taking some birthday photos that she was wearing her Michigan sweatshirt last year in her pictures too. Hmmmm, I guess we were watching a Michigan football game then too. Plus, there's always General Conference. Still, we manage to fit in a party, complete with birthday pumpkin pie :-)

This year, she made a short list of gifts that she wanted and left it on the refrigerator door. Amazingly, she got pretty much everything from gum to books to K'Nex. She thought she was going to need Mark's help to build it, but he left for work, and she only needed John's help a couple of times.

Finally, at the end of the day and before the sun went down, I couldn't resist taking a photo of Glo and Dash. Technically, he's not her dog (Cherry is), but being regaled in their Michigan finery, I could hardly resist the two of them together.

Happy Birthday, Glo!