A Birthday Letter to My Eight Year Old.

Jenna was Star of the Week in school a while back, and part of the festivities was the class hearing a letter written by the star's parent about the star.  I wrote this letter for that occasion and think that it captures Jenna this year:

Dear Mrs. Davies' 2nd Grade Class:

You have a very special girl in your class this year and her name is Jenna Alicia Libutti.  Let me tell you a little bit about her.

Jenna was born in the middle of the night in May on a very busy night at the hospital.  She was a perfect sized baby, not too big and not too small.  She had lots of black hair when she was born and right away she loved to stare at me and her dad when we held her.

Jenna's eyes are very, very blue and they turned that color when she was just a few weeks old.  Jenna's eyes are very special and lots of people have told me since she was a baby how beautiful her eyes are.  I think they are beautiful, too, but I think what is even MORE special about them is that they show how sweet Jenna is.  You cannot look into Jenna's eyes and not know that she is gentle and kind and loving.  Her eyes show that to everyone.

Now, Jenna may have been a pretty baby, but trust me: she was a very, very hard baby to take care of.  She wanted to be held ALL THE TIME.  Morning, afternoon, and evening, and especially at night.  And she only wanted me to hold her.  If I tried to put her down, she would cry like her heart was breaking, and it made me so sad that I just kept holding her. And holding her.  And holding her. I almost went crazy holding her so much!

But then, when she was three and four years old, she got more comfortable being on her own and didn't need me to hold her so much.  She was very quiet and didn't like to talk to people- she was very shy- but she started talking to some people.  She went to preschool and found some very special friends.  And then her brother Alec was born and all of a sudden, she had a great thing to talk to people about: how fun it was to be a big sister.  Jenna loved being a big sister and was really helpful.  And when I had a new baby to take care of, I realized that Jenna wasn't a baby anymore, and that she was becoming a big girl.

Jenna learned to talk and when she talked she had trouble saying the letters "c" and "k" and "g".  So she had her own way of speaking and it was so cute that her daddy and I started talking that way, sometimes, too!  One year in preschool she she made her daddy a coffee cup and she asked him, "Do you lite your toffee tup, Daddy?"  We had a cat for a long time named Kiki, and Jenna called her Teetee.

So now Jenna is in second grade.  And now she can say the letters c,k, and g.  You may notice that she is pretty tall (so is her daddy!) and that she has long hair (we have to braid it every night so it doesn't get tangled when she sleeps) and is missing a few teeth (she writes a letter to the Tooth Fairy every time she loses a tooth, and the Tooth Fairy writes back to her!).  But did you know that Jenna is a Girl Scout?  She is! And did you know that Jenna doesn't really like to play sports but she loves yoga and takes a yoga class every week? She does! And do you know that Jenna sings in the choir at our church, and my shy Jenna gets up in front of 300 people and dances and smiles the whole time? She does! And did you know how much Jenna loves her American Girl Dolls and plays school with them every day?  She is a great teacher to her little students.  And did you know that Jenna has a grandma whose name is also Mrs. Davies?  Isn't that funny?

Now I will tell you why I love my Jenna- I call her Nenna, because that is what she called herself when she was a little girl.  I love my Nenna because she is smart and does well in school.  I love my Nenna because she loves to think hard about things and wants to understand how the world works.  I love my Nenna because she is a very good girl and an easy daughter, and she never gets into trouble.  I love my Nenna because even though she is only 7, sometimes she seems like she is much older than that.  I love my Nenna because she is funny and fun to be with, she is incredibly kind and gentle, and she has the sweetest spirit of anyone I've ever met.  I love my Nenna because she is so loving, and I don't think that anyone has ever loved me as much as my Nenna loves me.

So Jenna is a very special person to me and her Daddy, and her brother and her sister, and to her Godparents and grandparents and her aunts and uncles and cousins.

Everybody loves Jenna.

Love,
Jenna's Mommy

Happy Birthday to my Jenna!!