Happy 7th Birthday Clara Godfrey
I’ve probably made this comment in a previous post, but it’s amazing how someone can complain constantly about how bored she is while simultaneously doing so much amazing stuff. Mystery. Anyway, another year, another giant stack of photos and associated memories.
And away we go!
Bracketology:
Your 7th year on earth started out like every other — with a party for Mom. Wu Fest is the annual celebration of two of the world’s great events — the NCAA final four, and Mom’s birthday — and it just happens to land right after (or sometimes on) your birthday. This past year Mom was inexplicably out of town, but ‘cardboard cutout Jess’ was a big hit in her place. So even when Mom isn’t around, she manages to steal the show on your birthday weekend.
Oh well, at least this year you stuck it to everyone by nailing your NCAA tourney bracket (currently trending towards first place in the “Battle of Baywood.” Who else had Princeton winning AND UCONN making a deep run? I guess we could all learn from your “pick the cutest mascot” strategy.
Mom:
Since we’re already talking about Mom, might as well continue on. You’re clearly your mother’s daughter, for better or worse. Thankfully, it’s mostly ‘better’, and few things bring me so much joy as the moments when you are snuggling, holding hands, or simply not screaming at each other.
Screen Time:
You finally got an iPad for your 6th birthday. At first all you wanted to do was watch videos of people playing with Barbies or My Little Pony. But after a couple months Gaby taught you how to text, which was cute and adorable until you’d get bored and start barraging me with whatever random strings of emojis you could find.
Maybe the prospect of texting will motivate you to learn to read and write. Although I guess emojis make learning to read and write not so critical.
You’ve since gone back to videos as your primary use case, and your favorite time is when your brothers’ friends come over and Mom lets you have iPad time. You disappear into a giant pile of stuffies and immerse yourself in the depths of Bluey, Garfield, Big City Greens, or whatever the flavor of month cartoon is.
Fashionista:
You’ve become very particular about what you wear, and save for black yoga pants (which have recently become an everyday staple), your preferences change day-to-day or even minute-to-minute. Getting you to lay out tomorrow’s outfit before bedtime saved a lot of time (and tears) during your grumpy mornings. Sadly, that would require consistent foresight and planning which isn’t really a strength of yours or mine.
Gaby even taught you to do your own nails, and you did such a good job that Claudia let you do hers as well!
Speaking of Claudia….
Gaby’s family:
Gaby’s parents came to visit twice since your last birthday! Claudia doesn’t speak English, and you’re not exactly fluent in Portuguese, but somehow you have built this amazing bond over Facetime chats. And anytime Gaby’s brothers Dre or Junior are around you manage to pull them into a card game or some other activity. Its good to know that if something happens to us you have a backup family all lined up…
Speaking of Gaby’s family…
Gaby!
Gaby is the big sister you never had, except she’s a whole lot nicer to you than a real sister would be. She braids your hair, bakes and cooks with you, and has introduced you to the world of “Friends.” I suspect you have little idea what’s actually going on in the show (I sure hope not), but if Gaby loves it, you do too.
Gaby has even made you her primary accomplice in her Instagram videos. Colt has been trying unsuccessfully to go viral for several years, and all you had to do was have some ‘serious squirrels in your pants” for a few seconds. I assume this is precisely what Al Gore had in mind when he invented the internet
You can see the full version (with almost 20,000 views) here (it’s worth it, I promise): https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkEhdkpD1mD/
Milestones:
You finally lost your first tooth. Of course, you couldn’t just wait for it to fall out, and so you pulled it out yourself. Badass to the core.
Brothers:
You’re not a big fan of your brothers — or so you claim. When Colt got covid back in May, you were tearing up and asking if he was going to be OK. Mom had to put a photo of him by your bed because you couldn’t fall asleep without him in the room:
And apparently you not only look up to Colton, but want to become him.
You: “I’m basically turning into Colton because after school I’m hungry and eat a second lunch. And Colton is always hungry.”
Me: “Uh….what’s that now? I can’t think of anyone who survives on less food than you.”
You: nonverbal shrug and back to whatever you were doing
You guys fight a ton, and as the youngest you certainly get left out sometimes. But you also will snuggle up in front of a phone or iPad, play cards endlessly, and have even started playing video games together (Minecraft). Granted, it doesn’t always go well as your brothers aren’t exactly the most accommodating and won’t take it easy on you, but at least you’re all in the mix together. And you may be able to beat up Colton pretty soon if he keeps annoying you.
How you ask? Well…
Martial Arts:
After months (years?) of begging us to let you do gymnastics, we finally enrolled you in Taekwondo. Yes, I know it’s not the same thing. But you are barefoot, get to wear comfy clothes, build flexibility, and I assume they’ll eventually teach you some flips and rolls. So close enough. And unlike gymnastics which can be 15–20+ hours per week, this is more like 2 hours. Which is better. For me.
Once you’re good enough to beat me up, we can talk about gymnastics. Hopefully by then you’ll be over it.
Flag Football:
Flag football has always been sport #1 in the Wu Godfrey household. So even though you already play on the coed team, when Next Level introduced a new Girls league, we said “let’s do two!” and signed you up. Thankfully, Savannah’s dad had the same idea and helped coach.
In the coed league, you played some quarterback and made some nice runs, but mostly thrived on defense. Most memorable was a game-saving flag pull against a kid who had scored every time he’d touched the ball. He’d bounce around like a pinball, and on this most critical play bounced one time too many, as you grabbed his flag before he could bolt down the sideline for the winning score. Your Ducks (ugh) came oh so close to winning it all, losing the championship on the last play of the game.
In your girls league, you won a few and lost a few, but no one except the coaches really cared much. You got really aggressive on defense and pulled tons of flags. You even broke off some big runs and had multiple touchdowns, with your most notable being a 29 yard scamper on the last play of the half where the other team’s best player literally tackled you at the 1 yard line (which, but rule, is a TD).
But mostly you just loved hanging out with your friends. And doing handstands and cartwheels. So many handstands and cartwheels. Someone should really get you into gymnastics…
Grandma!
Grandma came to visit a couple times this year, which is always amazing. If anyone is more accommodating and pays even more attention to you than Gaby, it’s Grandma (it’s definitely not Mom or me). Even better, for the first time you got to crash the boys annual July trip to Seattle. There was much to love (new stuffies, Little Caesar’s Pizza, endless snacks), but the two highlights were the Great Wolf Lodge and meeting your 2nd cousin Quinn.
At the Great Wolf Lodge you swam, rode the waterslides, and displayed some previously unbeknownst hula hooping skills.
Me: “Where did you learn how to do that?”
You: “Baywood”
Well at least you’re learning something at school…
Quinn quickly became your bestie as you would furiously text and facetime (whenever you were actually allowed on your iPad) and kept asking me for playdates (never quite grasping how far away she lives). Thankfully we’ll be back in Seattle again this summer and you can rekindle this relationship.
More Cousins:
We were able to see all your 1st cousins as well, as we descended on Chicago in August to meet up with mom’s family. You ate some great pizza, caught a Cubs game (no ball, sorry), saw the sights, and even found time to braid Josie’s hair. You seemed fine sitting on a glass ledge hundreds of feet up, but were terrified doing the “tilt” (which, really, is the same thing).
Adult friends:
You’ve starting making a lot more kid friends (actually being physically at school is helpful for that), but still love to mix it up with the adults. We’re incredibly lucky to have a great social group, many of whom only have boys and have kinda adopted you as the daughter they never had and think they’d want (although we know better). So like seemingly everyone else except your actual parents, they engage with you, play games, and make you feel like the center of the world. Which is exactly how you should feel when you’re six. But you’re seven now, so time to grow up!
As an aside — for your 6th birthday Kerri bought you a dinosaur sleeping bag, which you’ve faithfully used virtually every night since. If only your parents knew you as well as our friends…
Softball:
Last year you played tball softball for the first time. When you started the season, you could barely throw and couldn’t catch at all. By the end of the season, you could sorta kinda throw but still couldn’t catch (but you could hit pretty well, even with my terrible pitching). We worked on catching in the backyard, and sometime in August it clicked. We’d play a game where each catch was worth 3 points and we actually reached 300. Lots of catching, AND you got to work on your math skills.
You: “I’m good at math. you’re good at being the catching guy”
Me: “I think I’m also pretty good at throwing darts at your glove, but whatever.”
In November I managed to hit you right in the face with a ball and was worried that it might dampen your enthusiasm. But you shook it off and seem to have (almost) no fear of the ball.
I’m coaching your “Minis” team this year (kid/coach pitch) and notwithstanding the terrible weather that has washed out most of our practices and games, the season is going well. It’s amazing to watch you grow and develop so fast. Imagine what you could do with a coach who actually knew what they were doing!
Potpourri:
In theory this is the section where I talk about the stuff that doesn’t fit other places. But lets be honest — there were just some photos I wanted to include and couldn’t figure out any other place for. So here you go:
Golf:
I took you to the range with clubs that were way too big. You loved it and wanted to keep going. So I ordered you a properly-sized set which you’ve now used once I think. So these might be the most expensive photos in the post. Money well spent.
Healthy eating:
You allegedly like salad. You actually just like croutons. Once again, money well spent.
Sparkle:
This was alluded to earlier, but you really like pretty things. And I really like this photo of you holding a pretty thing. Kismet.
Trinta:
Even though you have your own sports, you still get dragged along to your brothers’ stuff. And nowhere do you get dragged to more than Trinta (although Twin Creeks is making a run). But in addition to mini muffins, burgers, Gatorade, and other treats, you also get to ride in the Gator with Tommy. So it’s not all bad
Party Planner:
You’ll get an idea in your head and go full boar. Most recently, that meant planning a Valentine’s Day family party. Which meant cleaning out Michael’s v-day decorations, and wearing your best red dress.
Based on the outfits, it appears that no one else shared your enthusiasm for the holiday. But you probably got a heart-shaped cookie or something out fo the deal, which I assume was the ultimate goal anyway. Well played.
Dogs:
You’re constantly begging us to get a dog. You love Rex, Wilson, Baxter, and basically every other dog you encounter. The only thing you love more than dogs is acting like a dog. Which, I don’t love. But as noted earlier, it is your love of dogs that enabled you to successfully pick UCONN’s deep tourney run. So there’s that
Soccer:
I also coached your soccer team. Last season we started slow before turning it on winning our last several games. This season, we started even slower, losing our first two games by a combined score of 29–1. A crucial “own goal” saved us from starting with back-to-back shutouts. It sadly didn’t get much better, although we did somehow win our final game.
As bleak as the results were, it was a good group of kids and parents, which made my job a bit easier. And I’m sure by now you’d forgotten about all the losses, so it wouldn’t matter anyway. Except that I’ve now reminded you and it’s written here for time immortal so you can never really block it out. You’re welcome.
Hugs:
You are a hugger. You’ll accost me, Gaby, Mom, Grandma, Principal Driscoll, and almost anyone else you know with a big embrace for no other reason than you haven’t seen them for a few minutes. A frequent target of this affection is Mrs. Fournier, our school librarian who also doubles as the morning crossing guard. Each morning, like clockwork, she’ll be standing near the entrance to the school (always in a different costume, which is amazing). And each morning, you’ll run up and give her a hug.
As great as you are at hugging and daytime snuggling, you suck that much at nighttime snuggling. I shared a bed with you in Vegas and NY. I wouldn’t say we “slept” in the same bed, because any time I did fall asleep I’d awake to a violent tossing where you’d flip 180 degrees with your limbs whipping into me like wet noodles. And that might still be better than the snoring. Granted, mom would probably say the same about me, so I guess we know where you inherited it from…
Tahoe Summer:
Colt and Mom had to miss our regular Labor Day Tahoe trip, but we made the best of it. You bonded with your ‘apparently separated at birth twin’ Maya, and discovered a love of roller skating that I really don’t have any way to satiate (don’t you have enough stuff going on already!).
We went out on the lake, and you even got into the not exactly frigid but definitely pretty cold water. But when you’re six, it’s the simple things that really get you excited. And nothing is simpler than sparkly tattoos and ice cream.
OK, that last sentence didn’t really make any sense, but you get the point. Kids like sugar and shiny things. Let’s just move on.
New York, NY:
Your school takes a week off every October because apparently that is more useful than having a ski week. Usually we don’t go anywhere because where the hell are you supposed to go in October?
Disneyland? Sure I suppose.
Hawaii? Yeah, that would make sense too I guess.
Regardless, this year we went to New York because the weather in NY is definitely doesn’t suck in October.
We hit the major museums, saw Hamilton, and ate a lot of delicious food (you liked it, you just didn’t realize it at the time because you were six). During breaks in the rain, we saw the Statue of Liberty up close and went to a Mets game that was only delayed about 3 hours. You showed tremendous patience, maybe because you got a ball and the brothers didn’t. And sometimes the only thing more enjoyable than success is watching others fail.
Of course, the highlight of any NY trip for a six year old is visiting FAO Schwartz. And the highlight of any trip to FAO Schwartz is getting a photo of yourself in a giant Barbie box!
“Gaby is going to be sooooooooooo jealous!” (she was indeed).
Tahoe winter:
We headed up to Tahoe for a couple days before Thanksgiving. The first day your bindings were so loose they’d come off on slo-motion falls, and even sometimes when trying to click into the other boot. But a few turns of the screwdriver got that all sorted. We saw the Shahani family the first day, and Tahlia was happy to ski with you. The second day we ran into Mrs. Warren (your old kindergarten teacher), which motivated you to go fast so you could meet up at the bottom and ride the chairlift with her.
The only really terrible part was getting your skis from the car to the mountain and back. You hated carrying them, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to do it. So you sucked it up, but certainly didn’t let me forget how hard and terrible and unfair and impossible and heavy and awkward it was. You’re welcome again.
We went back up for New Years, but weather issues meant only one day on the slopes. No matter, as we were staying around the corner from the Walton’s and crashed their house most days. You and Nora were basically attached at the hip. You also got some tumbling instruction from Emma Best at Woodward Tahoe. You’re really getting good at cartwheels and handsprings and stuff! Someone should really get you enrolled in gymnastics or something…
Hawaii:
You visited Hawaii for the first time, which you probably remember since we just got home last night. Notwithstanding the massive storm that basically knocked out a full day (and flooded our room!), you had a great time swimming in the pool and subsisting on snacks and fried foods. But the highs and lows were best represented by our tubing adventure.
Some of the awesome — picking out a bright orange helmet, jumping for the camera (it’s the simple things), and riding down the “waterfall”. Less awesome? The temporary downpour, and the “no headlights” tunnel that sparked a lot of fear.
But the least awesome? Before we even got in the water, there was a little creek with a short bridge. You asked “Why is there a bridge when you can just jump over it?” The guide suggested you give it a try, but didn’t foresee that one of your feet would plug deep in the mud.
It was hilarious for everyone. Well, everyone except you who burst into tears. And our guide Sophie who was mortified that she encouraged you to jump. And the others in our group who were presumably wondering what kind of terrible parents laugh at their daughter when she’s crying. But everyone else had a good time.
Growing up:
Normally this last section is just some heartfelt thoughts about how quickly you’re becoming a real person and how I can’t believe you’re already X years old, and how I see so much of Mom’s personality in you or whatever. And all that is true. But what’s also true is that physically you’re, like, really growing up! Sometimes you look like high-school is right around the corner. And I guess in the grand scheme it is. But holy moly let’s slam the brakes on this a bit and enjoy being a kid just a little bit longer. Deal?
Whew! What a remarkable year! I feel like you did more from 6–7 years old than I did my entire childhood. Although we didn’t have the internet and it was pretty much always raining, so what was I supposed to? Anyway, this year has been a wild ride and I’m just excited to have a seat. I can’t wait to see what you do in the coming year. Although if I had a few guesses, I’d go with:
- Dropkick Cam over a minor dispute (careful — he’s learning Taekwondo too)
- Learn how to hold a handstand, and maybe even walk around on your hands
- Push Mom towards a nervous breakdown
Smart money is on all of the above.
I love you and love being your dad. Happy 7th birthday Clara!
