Ode to Felicity

Last night, Felicity and her best friend, Kyrie, had their joint birthday party. Since her birthday approaches, I've been thinking about how much she has progressed in the last year or two. She is developing into such an amazing person.

For one thing, although she has always been a great reader, at one point I despaired of ever getting her to read anything but fantasy books. I have nothing against her reading fantasy, but I was anxious for her to expand a bit. Nevertheless, I tried desperately to follow the educational philosophies that I believe in--that is, exercise patience and lead by example. Seriously, it took a long time, but in the past year, things have come together so beautifully. She started her more mature reading career by taking up Agatha Christie. Nothing beats a classic murder mystery, right? Then she suddenly jumped to Jane Austen and read Pride and Prejudice. Next was P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster books. But the really, really amazing thing: she just finished reading an unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo. I never could have read that when I was 12. In fact, I found it somewhat challenging to get through now. I enjoyed it--it may be the only 19th century novel I've ever read that could be described as a page turner--but it still isn't exactly light reading.

Besides her sudden willingness to challenge herself with her reading, she's also developing great self-discipline about house work. At the beginning of the school year, I instituted a new chore routine. Part of that involves the girls cleaning up the breakfast dishes, and many mornings, as I'm getting out of the shower, I hear Felicity rounding up her sisters to clean the kitchen. One day when I was commenting on how she (and her sisters) are doing their chores so cheerfully, she said that they figured that since they were going to have to do the work anyway, they might as well just get it done. Wow. I remember whining and procrastinating my chores when I was a kid.

There's more. Last weekend when it was General Conference, she watched every session without being told to. Norm and I were even late getting home for the Saturday afternoon session, and when we walked in, Felicity and Elisabeth were both watching it.

On top of all that, she continues to be really sweet with Isaac and Tabitha. Some of the surprising books she read a few months ago were Siblings Without Rivalry and How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk. It cracks me up to hear her practicing the things from that book on the twins, but I think it's really sweet, too. She's also so fun to talk to now. She takes an interest in things going on in the world now and likes to hear about the history behind things that happen. She likes to discuss the books we've both read and all kinds of fun things like that.

Seriously, I don't know how I survived before she got to be this fun to be around. Of course, I've always loved her, but it's so great to have her for a friend, too. I've always kind of despised that idea of being friends with your kids because I think that too often it means there's a lack of discipline, but I'm finding it possible to give her direction and still feel like we're friends. It's great!

So Happy Birthday to a truly fabulous almost 13 year old!