Happy 10th Birthday, Braelynn! Irwin, PA Photographer

Well, this one hits DIFFERENT.
This weekend, my sweet baby turns TEN years old – officially DOUBLE-DIGITS (insert all the emotions here).

I truly cannot believe it.
All week long, I’ve been looking at her and thinking: “10 years old? A whole decade? TEN?!”
At the risk of sounding like every other Mother on the planet: it truly seems like just yesterday she was born.

These last 10 years have been revolutionary. (Can you believe I’ve been a Mother for 10 years?!) It’s literally been the greatest honor of my life to watch my sweet little babe grow and mature into the beautiful, amazing, soon-to-be 10 year old that she is today.

As a little update:

“Creativity” remains Braelynn’s middle name. She is constantly coming up with some new project to tackle – whether it’s crocheting a new design, sewing something on her sewing machine, or drawing, coloring, or painting something. If she doesn’t have a pile of random papers sitting next to her at all times, something is wrong. Oh, and she doesn’t follow instrutions or patterns when it comes to her creating – she simply creates out of her own head and she makes it work. I’ve tried to teach her how to read a pattern, but she claims it’s “inhibiting” and would much rather forge her own path. (It’s just one of the ways that we are opposites!)
She has recently fallen in love with Legos – thanks to her brother. Leander got super obsessed with Legos a few months ago and Braelynn has fallen down the rabbit hole after him. The two of them will sit and build/create Lego-things for HOURS. Currently, they have a whole city built in the corner of our living room! I got her an “off-brand” Lego set for Christmas that turned out to be WAY beyond her skill level, so Derrick was trying to help her build it (but was getting pretty frustrated himself). She was really anxious to build her fairy house, but was unsatisfied with the amount of time Derrick could provide to help her (after all, he does work all day long) so, she took his pointers and decided that she would figure it out on her own. And amazingly: she has! She and Derrick built the first level together, and then she built the entire second level all on her own! She got frustrated toward the end because she realized she’d made a mistake that took quite some effort to correct – but that’s just who she is! If she has something she wants to do: she will simply figure out a way to do it AND she’ll practice until she gets there!
Along with her love of building – she has an entire village set up in her room for her Calico Critters (these small, fuzzy, animal families she’s been collecting). She’s gotten several “doll houses” from the thrift store and yard sales and she has them all arranged up in her room – each furnished and housed by a family of little animals – it’s ADORABLE. She loves to just sit up in her room and create new scenes for her animals – her imagination is HUGE and I love that it’s still in full-bloom.
Speaking of her bedroom, she upgraded to a bunk bed this past summer and she LOVES it. She sleeps on the top bunk, surrounded by her stuffed animals (more on them in a minute), and loves that she has a desk and bookshelves and dresser drawers buit in underneath.
Stuffed animals? They remain Braelynn’s number one obsession. She loves them ALL, but her two favorite FAVORITES are Fluff (a wolf that Derrick bought her several years ago) and Sprinkles (a German Shephard that she got for her birthday last year). They are WELL loved and go everywhere with Braelynn.
She is in 4th grade this year and she’s making great strides in school – especially in reading. Reading has always been something she’s struggled with, but she’s progressed SO much this year – I’m so proud of her! I attribute part of her reading success with a new spelling program I got – we started with one program that I thought she’d do well with and it was clearly not working for her, so I scrapped it, did a ton of research, and found her something else. She’s been doing great and I really think it’s helped her reading skills too! She’s much more confident and I love that she can read Bible verses at church now (without help) – I’m so proud of her.
Outside of reading, she’s learning long division and multiplication, fractions and decimals in math. She’s doing a biology-centered science and we’re studying early American history. She’s also learning how to write in cursive (a long lost art!)
Braelynn finally hit 54″ tall at the beginning of this summer – which means she’s tall enough to ride EVERY roller coaster now. What an amazing milestone to reach! She had one, very specific roller coaster she’s been dying to ride forever – Manta at Sea World Orlando – it’s a flying coaster – and she was finally able to ride it this summer. She was SO happy! She also conquered some other pretty big coasters like Fury 325 at Carowinds and Storm Runner at Hersheypark – needless to say: it was a SUPER fun summer for Braelynn!
Speaking of traveling – we visited the Grand Canyon during our week-long visit to Nana and Papa at the beginning of December. She enjoyed that, but what she really loved was climbing on the rocks at Sedona, riding a bike around Nana and Papa’s property, and simply being in “the desert”. She loves flying and keeps asking when we can get on an airplane again.
While we were in Arizona, Braelynn asked if she could get baptized! It was actually something she’d been talking and asking about for a while, and somehow it came up in conversation on one of our first nights there – and so she asked if she could get baptized. Derrick and his Dad baptized her in their hot tub – and her Great Grandma Derrick and Great Aunt Susie were able to be there to witness the event!
If you’d ask her who her best friend is, she’d say: Cameron (her cousin). Sadly, we didn’t get to see Cameron very often this year (because she lives 4 1/2 hours away and their family went through a big move in the middle of the year), but she loves her so much and is always asking to call her to FaceTime (technology is AMAZING).
If you ask me: I’d say that Leander is her best friend because they truly do love each other. Sure, they fight, like every set of siblings, but they truly, honestly adore each other.
Honestly though, the “best friend” title is a tricky one for Braelynn because she truly loves all of her friends – and boy, does she have a lot of them! She has the most precious circle of friends at church who she simply adores. She’s always bringing them little gifts and notes – greeting them with hugs and love!
And lastly: how could we forget – Braelynn has the sweetest friendship with our neighbors: Bob and Karen. They’re a retired couple and Braelynn has adopted them as a sort of third grandparents. She will literally sit and talk their ear off, she is constantly drawing them pictures and writing them notes (which she delivers to their door) – she is always looking for ways to help him (whether it’s carrying groceries in or shoveling their sidewalk) – it’s really really sweet.
Since Braelynn’s birthday is in the dead of winter, I promised her last year that she could have a “half birthday” for her friends in the summer. So, in August, we invited ALL of her friends over and they had an “art” party in our backyard. It was a CRAZY day, because even though it was August, it ended up being a super cool day (temps in the 60’s!) She had literally the best day ever though and I thought her head was going to POP from how big her smile was at having all of her favorite people together at her house.
If you haven’t gotten the picture: Braelynn is an extremely generous and giving soul. She has no reservations about giving things away and loves to make people happy by giving them gifts.
Braelynn is an EXPERT snowman builder. Even if there is just a dusting of snow on the ground – somehow she manages to build a 5 foot tall snowman. I honestly don’t know how she does it. She loves the snow – she loves being outside in general. She told me earlier this week that she doesn’t mind winter, but she can’t wait for summer so she can just run outside without having to put shoes and a coat on. She loves to climb trees, ride her bike, and she became a really good swimmer over this past summer!
Last but not least: these photos I took of Braelynn are extra special because next week – she’ll have a different look. She has a rogue tooth that sits not only behind all of her other teeth, but is located in the wrong spot. So, next Thursday, she is going to get braces! She’s both nervous and excited (nervous because she doesn’t really know what to expect and because she knows she won’t be able to chew gum or eat sticky things – yet she’s excited because she’s the first of her friends to get braces and she’s anxious to get her tooth fixed!) By the time I take these same photos next year: she’ll have a new smile!

Braelynn’s birthday is on Saturday – a birthday she now shares with her cousin Zoe who turns one year old this year! Getting a brand new birthday-twin-cousin ON her birthday last year was the biggest surprise last year. Braelynn adores Zoe and I envision many many special celebrations to come as these two cousins share the same birthday.

If you want to take a trip down memory lane, here are the links to the past birthday posts I’ve written about Braelynn!
Happy 9th Birthday
Happy 8th Birthday
Happy 7th Birthday
Happy 6th Birthday
Happy 5th Birthday
Happy 4th Birthday
Happy 3rd Birthday
Happy 2nd Birthday
Happy 1st Birthday