Happy 7th Birthday, Braelynn! Irwin, PA Photographer

Braelynn Fiona 7th Birthday Portraits in Irwin PA

Today our precious, sweet girl turns the BIG 7 years old!!

Is it just me, or does 7 feel so grown up? Like, where did my little girl go? I feel like overnight she went from being “little” to being “big” & I can’t quite handle it. I absolutely adore everything she is & is becoming though (other than her sassy-little-attitude that pops up every now & then, that could go away). She’s such a happy, cheerful ray of sunshine in our lives & I can barely wrap my brain around the fact that she’s been ours for 7 whole years. Life “before Braelynn” truly feels so empty & what-the-heck-were-we-even-doing-with-our-lives?

Words cannot describe how much we love her.

As a little update:

Braelynn loves to sing & make up songs. She loves to dance. And she loves to create stories, write & illustrate little books. She is definitely a “right-brained” kid.
She loves to tell knock-knock jokes (even though most of them don’t quite “land” – we laugh anyway) and loves to play rock-paper-scissors, which she calls “scissors-paper-zoo”.
She is our best eater & our earliest riser (she’s up every day by 6:15am at the latest – ugh).
She has chores to do every day & does them (most of the time) without hesitation/complaint & by herself – she’s definitely growing more & more independent every day & loves to exercise that “muscle”!
She will set up her little figures & toys & play quietly by herself for hours – chattering away, creating stories & little adventures. It’s very entertaining to (quietly) watch!
She loves to do puzzles, play with kinetic sand, & slime (anything hands-on – she’s down for!).
She’s doing fantastic in school! She’s really come leaps & bounds further than we were last year at this time & I am so proud of her! She’s super good at math & numbers & catches on to those concepts very quickly – she loves science & doing experiments – she loves to listen to me read history, non-fiction, biographies – and it finally sunk into her brain that she knows all of her letters & what sounds they make & if she concentrates, she can sound words out! This has lead to a renewed effort to work harder at reading & she’s started independently writing words & creating little stories with words she knows she can write – we’ve come such a long way – 1st grade is definitely going better than Kindergarten! (Not that Kindergarten was bad – we’ve just found our stride & what WORKS for Braelynn).
She adores her brother (most of the time) and mostly just doesn’t understand why he has to take a nap every afternoon. She begs me to let him stay up every day so they can play together. They love to chase each other in circles around our house, build forts out of our couch cushions & pillows & blankets, and have adventures outside.
She makes friends with everyone & is super social!
She’s still obsessed with her “stuffies” & continues to “build” her collection (although, she’s been more willing to part with some of her “excess” in the last few weeks).
She continues to be our snuggle-bug & just wants to snuggle up to everyone, all the time.
She loves to Facetime with Cameron & Nana (and if she can’t get them, she tries to call Aunt Amy or Grandma)
She rode her first looping roller coaster while we were on vacation in Florida this year. Then, she hit 48″ tall which opened a whole new world of roller coasters to her!! She rode her first giga coaster (over 300ft tall) and her first triple looper (at Cedar Point), and finally got her first rides on Phantom’s Revenge at Kennywood on National Roller Coaster day! It’s been a big, exciting year & she’s loved every single moment of being big enough to ride BIG coasters!
She’s been counting down the days to her birthday & been making grand plans – it’s “her” day & she’s very excited (we are too).