Charleston, SC Children’s Photographer: Our Clara Beth, Nine

Without a doubt this past week of every year is the most emotional one for me. Collin and I celebrate our anniversary {Fifteen years this year!! Hallelujah!!} and then just two days after that we celebrate the birth of the most amazing little girl we’ve ever known. Now throw in the end of a school year where I come to terms every year with just how fast these days are flying. Then add in Clara Beth’s dance recital and I am a hot mess. I can’t watch any kid on stage doing the thing they love without becoming teary-eyed. But MY kid doing the thing she loves on a stage during the week that she turns a year older? That’s laying the ground work for a great big ugly cry. Don’t worry, I control myself during performances.

Yesterday we were sitting at the campsite picnic table having Clara Beth’s birthday breakfast and Mak asked if moms are really sad at their kids’ birthdays or if that’s just something they say. I explained that it’s not really a sad thing at all. Obviously the gift of another birthday is an incredible blessing. Being a mom is the thing that I have desired since I was a kid, and even though every day is not by any means the best thing ever, as a whole I truly feel like I am living out the greatest days of my life right now. My heart’s desire of being a momma is my reality and I am incredibly thankful. Birthdays are just a reminder at how fast it’s all going and how fleeting the days of having my babies under my roof are. I do miss having little ones in the house but honestly each year with these two growing older is getting better. While Collin and I were sitting on the edge of the pool yesterday we witnessed a precious momma with a toddler and a four year old trying to juggle them both in the water. The four year old was pretty capable of going kind of deep and the toddler {who was not capable at all} thought that what his brother was doing looked pretty fun and kept lunging after him. When he would lunge he would take half the pool into his mouth and become a choking, coughing mess. But he did it again and again. And every time his mother launched after him, doing that one arm momma grab thing that every mom of a toddler is familiar with. Meanwhile, Collin and I are sitting in the sun, holding hands, talking, watching our eleven and nine year old swim and do the waterslides without needing our help for anything. Collin looked at me and said “I do not miss that at all.” I can’t say that I don’t miss it at all, but I really am enjoying this stage of life that we are in as a family. I don’t think any momma is ever 100% happy to be out of the baby stage, but Great Glory it’s exhausting.

So, our CB girl. Nine. That’s kind of crazy when I think about it. Remember earlier when I said that this is the most emotional week of the year for me? For that reason I very rarely do a birthday blog post for Clara Beth. I think it’s just hard for me to put the feelings in my heart into words, and so I don’t. Mak almost always has a birthday post, but not CB. Just recently she’s started reading the blog, though, so you better believe that my girl will have a birthday post this year! Oh, and another thing? There’s going to be a whole lot of sunshine and roses and bragging on my kid in this post, and I get it if that’s annoying to you. But see, she’s my baby and I’m proud of her, and I know that the world will do its best to tear her down as she grows up. No need for me to do it here on my blog. So no, she’s by no means perfect. But I won’t be cataloging any faults here. =)

We did her nine year session in Charleston because it’s her favorite city in the world. She loves tradition and ritual. Her three year session was done in Charleston and she asked if we could recreate that session to see how much she has changed in six years. She will make a great Pinterest momma one day. 😉 When Collin placed the three year and nine year images side by side my heart kind of shattered. What I would give to scoop that teeny three year old up in my arms and throw her on my hip again. Crazy how fast she’s grown up.

If you want to win my girl’s heart then spend some time with her. Teach her something. Do an activity with her that she loves doing. Quality time is without a doubt her love language. She doesn’t need a penny spent on her, she just needs time. Oh, and physical touch. She’s a BIG cuddler. Daily she crawls up into my lap for snuggles. When she’s playing she will periodically run up to Collin and me for a quick hug before resuming her activities. She can’t just walk beside someone…she has to hold their hand. She rubs her Daddy’s beard, braids my hair, attaches herself to our arms. She’s about as opposite from Makgill in that regard as a person can get!

She is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS moving. Dancing, specifically. Drives her brother to the point of insanity. Watching tv, brushing her teeth, playing games…she’s always dancing to a beat in her head. This year she completed her sixth year of dance and took ballet, tap, and jazz classes. Dance class days are by far her favorite days. She likes ballet, but her heart is in tap and jazz. She loves to move fast and she does it with the biggest grin on her face! Seeing the complete JOY in her eyes when she’s up on the stage during her recital makes my heart so happy!

She also loves anything art related. I have given her a board on my Pinterest account and she goes through and pins various projects that she wants to complete over the summer. While in Missouri for Christmas she discovered sewing with Collin’s mom and has since asked over and over if she can learn how to do that. Too bad Collin’s mom is half a country away. Her birthday gifts this year centered around that, though. A how-to sewing machine book for kids, fabric, sewing tool box, embroidery hoop. The girl can teach herself anything from a book so we’re hoping that through that book and a sewing machine that Collin’s mom gave us years ago we will have a little seamstress on our hands in no time.

Her laugh is the BEST. I love it when she gets going over something silly and just can’t stop. Hearing Mak and CB upstairs laughing together is maybe my favorite sound in this world. And speaking of Makgill, Oh My Gracious, she loves that boy. Absolutely they fight like all normal siblings do, but her brother is definitely her BFF. But she would never admit it. He takes on the leader role in their relationship and she’s happy to let him, willingly following any instructions he gives like a good little sister. They can work together for hours fabricating some crazy complicated machine out of the cardboard boxes they get from Daddy’s studio. Then something will inevitably happen and one will blow up at the other and that project is abandoned all over the floor of my garage for weeks. But I’ll take a pile of cardboard trash in exchange for hours of watching them work together any day. I love that they have each other and I pray that they stay close forever.

She’s a reader. She began reading at a crazy early age. I never had to teach her, it somehow just happened. When she was three she brought me a brand new book, one that I was sure she had not memorized because we had just received it, and said in that super sweet toddler voice of hers “I weed dis to you?”. And then she did. Ever since then she reads everything she can get her hands on. Her favorite series right now is one that her Aunt Rebecca got her hooked on, the Mandie books. The next volume in the series is all she asked for for her birthday. Because of all of that reading, she’s smart as a whip. As my friend Leslie said to me before the kids did standardized tests this year, “Kids who read are smart. They just are.” She’s so right. I think I’m going to make it into a poster and hang it in our schoolroom. Nothing Collin and I are doing is making her smart, but the Lord sure has gifted her with a mind that loves to learn. If she wants to know something, she reads about it. I am SOOOOOO thankful for that about her! It makes being her teacher so much easier!

Clara Beth LOVES Jesus. She reads His Word, memorizes His Word, asks me questions about His Word that I have a hard time answering. She absolutely loves church and hangs on to the lessons she learns there. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened her bedroom door at night to find her silently crying over a friend or family member that doesn’t know Jesus. Her heart breaks so easily, and when she needs to be punished we have to be super careful of the way we handle her or it will crush her and she will beat herself up about it. I wish I had realized this about her a lot earlier. Recognizing our depravity and need for a Savior is a big topic of discussion around here these days. I just love learning more about this girl’s heart every day!

She’s a BIG helper in the studio and has been for a few years now. Kids love her. When Collin and I have pulled out all of our old tricks and can’t get a toddler to smile, we bring in the big guns. Also known as Clara Beth. If Clara Beth can’t get a kid to crack then we know it’s a lost cause. I can’t tell you how many times a momma has called to set up a session and requested that CB be there. She LOVES babies so much. One of her goals in life right now is to hold a newborn. For real, she wants to hold a newborn so bad she can hardly stand it. The newborn session is the one that she is banned from the studio for, for obvious reasons. I need one of my sisters-in-law to have a baby so that my girl can hold a newborn, but unfortunately neither of them are cooperating. I’ll keep working on them, though.

There’s so much more that I could say about our girl. She is such a gift. Mothering her is a gift. When God added this girl to our family, He changed our dynamics in the best way possible. Happy Ninth Birthday, Clara Elizabeth Smith! We love you like Crazy!