Precious Tender Angelic Belligerent Ballsy Pixie-Child with Fangs

Today is the Birthday of Smallest Child.
 She is the last of the litter, and she hit the ground running.  I believe she was born believing she could catch up with her older siblings no matter how much of a head start they had gotten by being born 2, 6 and 7 years sooner than herself.

 Here are a few of my favorite things about the Lovely Mrs. S.

1-She does pretty things with her hair. Unlike many redheads who think "my hair is red, therefore it is pretty, lucky me" and leave it at that, Smallest Child has taught herself to expertly coif her hair with twists and braids, unusual wedding-cake layering of curls, clips and jewels and bows. Pretty, pretty.

2-She cooks. And bakes. She loves good food, rejoices in the bounty of the harvest season and has a proper and grateful respect for a well supplied pantry and a nicely turned out dinner table. Her family is in no danger starving or of suffering the dreaded diseases caused by a fast-food lifestyle.

3-She's the most hard-working person I know. She was a relatively slovenly child and a messy pre-teen, but somehow she grew up to have an amazing work ethic. This was not the result of maternal nagging, I am far too lazy to nag. Those who employ Mrs. S are fortunate indeed.

4-She's pretty on the outside, but she is not vain about it, is well aware of her "flaws" as she calls them, and is prettiest of all on the inside where it counts the most.

5-She's smart enough and ballsy enough not to let people push her around.  This includes drunk idiots in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras and other people's spoiled children who believe grown-ups are to be disobeyed and ignored.  I need never worry that she will put herself  in serious danger anywhere in the world.  I need never worry that she'll give me a fat lot of rotten, ill-bred,  ill-behaved grandchildren. Mrs. S steps up to the plate and handles things.

6-She has excellent taste in men and her husband is an absolutely ideal match for herself.  Even better she has wedded her way into the most terrific family imagineable. And they think they're lucky to get her ; ) 

7-She's funny and good natured. I gave my kids a rather bohemian upbringing. She's been met with  more challenges, odd decisions and ruts in the road of life than many her age, but she laughs in the face of disaster and smiles her way through whatever fate chooses to present itself, perpetually using her vivid imagination and nimble fingers to spin straw into gold.

Happy Birthday Smallest Child-it's been a lovely quarter of a century!