Well, my sweet little Monet is almost 17. We are going to have a very busy day on her birthday this year. We have a track meet, climbing competition and are heading to Spring Break. So it will be mostly spent in the car.
So before things get crazy in the next couple days, I just wanted to take a minute and write down my thoughts about Monet. I LOVE that James Taylor song,
Shower the People You Love with Love, and I believe in that principle! Tell everyone you love how much you love them. Birthdays are a good time for that so this one's for Monet.
Monet was a whopping 8lbs 14oz at birth 5 days early! She was a short little chunky baby. At least for a couple weeks. She soon started sleeping a lot and that stressed me out. She was born with a Ventricular Septal Defect and a patent Foramen Ovale which are heart defects. So a VSD and PFO. The PFO closed on its own pretty quickly and isn't very uncommon. The VSD we had to watch for awhile and get echocardiograms, etc. But they told me to watch out for her sleeping too much and not eating. So I was a little nervous about her 14 hour sleeping stretches at night! And then, she discovered her thumb. It was literally the cutest thing to see her suck her thumb all the time! She was a self soother and wouldn't cry much when she was hungry, so she'd suck her thumb instead
She was also incredibly cuddly. I kept her in the sling all the time (had to have my hands free to chase after Elise anyway) and she was happy as long as she was attached to me.
She was a mamas girl and I loved it. Jared would take Elise to entertain her and I would keep Monet with me so I could feed her. She was so adorable as a baby and super happy and smiley.
When she was three, she wanted to get her ears pierced like Elise. I think a lot of girls have a princess stage at 3, and Monet was more girly back then. I explained that it hurt. But she said she wouldn't even cry. And she didn't.
Monet has always loved a challenge. Maybe its a birth order thing. She always had this super athletic sister that she looked up to and wanted to emulate.
What I loved about her goal setting was how patient she is with herself when trying to reach a goal. She's willing to put in the work. And she doesn't expect it to happen overnight. Its pretty neat to see the process she goes through as she breaks down her goals and then consistently works toward them. It is very inspiring to me. Because I don't know that I ever mastered that. She sees a long term problem and when she wants it, she isn't deterred.
In basketball, she was always one of the smallest on the team. So she worked and worked at her dribbling and got scrappy and good at steals. In track, she was also small. I think she has a natural endurance but also a heart defect that makes her heart pump less efficiently so I think it is pretty incredible that she ran a 5:15 mile and an 18:30 5K!
This year, she wanted to get better at climbing. So during her 2 week break from running in December, she went just about everyday to the climbing gym and was able to complete a v3 which is excellent.
She is incredibly organized. Every week she plans out her school work and what she's going to accomplish in the little pockets of time in between track and lacrosse. Juggling two sports at the same time isn't easy. AT ALL. But she doesn't seem more stressed than your average high school kid. She really thrives on being busy.
When she does her homework, she has this crazy handwriting that we all like to joke about. Who writes like this? Come on! But she's very deliberate and thats just how she does things. She loves hand lettering and even did some signs for weddings and businesses.
Monet is a great person who will get crap done. I am always glad when she's around to help out because she's super responsible. She is a great leader. I saw a lot of those skills come out last summer when Cole died. I know she probably wouldn't want me to write about this but since she doesn't ever read this blog I am probably safe. She organized a lot of things for her friends that following few weeks. I saw her pain and how hard it was for her--it is still hard. Yet she would try to fill her time with things like making brownies and delivering them to friends. Gathering photos and memories of Cole. Decorating his Jeep. Getting everyone together to learn a song for the funeral. It was good for her to be busy and she needed those assignments.
Her lacrosse teammates voted her a captain. Which was super flattering to her. She felt really excited about that and I know she'll be a good one.
Monet is pretty funny! I have mixed feelings about social media. Yes, its distracting. But its also this creative outlet. Kids are learning to communicate in different ways. And I actually love seeing the little funny video clips and things that she takes. She's not a selfie girl but man she's got some funny videos. We went to Lake Powell with our friends last year and the other moms that were there were saying how cute it was that Monet is laughing and smiling all the time.
Monet isn't one to be messed with either. Some of her guy friends made a derogatory comment about women's sports. She let them have it--she roasted them hard and it was pretty hilarious actually. They were mad at her, and maybe she shouldn't have said what she did but I was proud of her that she put them in their place and was so quick thinking. Ha! Boys need to learn that putting down girls isn't funny or impressive.
Monet LOVES tennis shoes. She has a little tennis shoe collection that is quite impressive. She earns the money herself and so I guess its fine with me. They are pretty cute.
She is so nurturing! I love seeing her interact with Soren. She is going to make an incredible mama someday. She's been like that since she could walk and talk. Loves taking care of others. First it was her dolls, then her cousin "Sharlie" and then it was Miles. She still loves to hold Soren, especially when he was sleeping in her arms. Its pretty cute.
I love her brain. She's different than me. She's more into math and science and doesn't love to write. But I'm fascinated that a kid that came out of me can be so good at those things. Lol. It really is like wow. She's got perfect grades since the first term of 7th grade. AP, Honors, hard classes. And she doesn't just barely get the A's. She'll do extra credit even when she doesn't need it and end up with over 100% in several classes. I never would have done that ever. Her first ACT score with zero prep was great and she is hoping that with some studying she can raise it even more.
She is thinking BYU Hawaii sounds really great and chill right now. Sounds amazing to me and like a fun place for Monet. She's also considering BYU and some out of state schools. I know that her education is going to be an important part of her life.
Love my Monet!
