a birthday and a blessing

my little bee turns 7 today - 7!!! how did that happen? she wanted a camera, nicer than the one she has, and was denied.  when she wakes up she'll have to settle for a vintage wicker purse with a little money tucked inside to be spent in seattle next week.  and she gets a swing in one of the trees when ryan gets back from trek next week. a few things about briar:
1. she's a kind-hearted caretaker of the friendless and lonely, even if she has to taste loneliness to join them.
2. she's naturally a very organized, neat child.  the chaos of our house overwhelms her, i can tell.  she regularly organizes my tupperware cupboard for me. 
3.  she LOVES literature, reading and writing poetry, drama, reader's theatre, playacting - all of it! we've read several classics together, from a very early age, and she devours every bit.  she even enjoys the scriptures, but only if she can act them out.
4.  briar is in love with fashion and all things textile - her taste before this year was eccentric, to put it mildly, and i often inwardly giggled  when i saw her choice of ensembles.  this year, she's become quite the conformist, sticking to a wardrobe of tees, hoodies and jeans.  BO-RING.  i confess i miss her haphazard get-ups. 
5. we have a few briarisms in our household: headboard for forehead, skor bars are "scorch bars", in kindergarten she proudly told me about her "leprosy (literacy) backpack" - i said leave it on the porch. while not an official "briarism", this blog is named after a game she made up, "snuggle trumpet".  you say "snuggle trumpet"...waggle your fingers and make a trumpet-like sound (we usually emulate the chorus of a well-known cure song with a great horn section)...and say someone's name - then you snuggle them.  so we are the trumpet house.
6. she's incurably bossy - with everyone.  her 13 year-old cousin is visiting, and i've heard her telling him what is and is not allowed in our house, in very stern tones.  "devlin, you are NOT to throw water on house - no, NOT ON THE HOUSE. that is NOT allowed!"
7. when asked what she wanted to do for her birthday, which we celebrated as a family on the 1st, she chose to hike bear's hump in waterton lakes national park, and picnic at redrocks afterward.  i totally approved of her choice and promise it was all her idea - it really was! too bad the weather conspired against and we had to turn back as the rain came pouring down.  hiking a mountain with 4 smallish children in a rainstorm is never advisable.  but, true to form, she was satisfied with something else very simple. her next choice was the newish playground at henderson lake - we were again denied due to the canada day festivities and not wanting to walk all over creation with a brood of kids.  so she settled for the park with the "big slide" (freakishly tall - jacob nearly fell to his death from atop this same slide when he was two) and a hastily eaten picnic amidst the mosquitoes.  she rocks.
i celebrate her life and what she has made mine - more tender and thoughtful, more open to inspiration and fantasy.  i love my daughter.  i love her dark hair, the same dark hair she had as a newly born babe seven years ago in provo, utah.  i was blissful with my spinal block, until the meds wore off. i remember how she opened her extraordinarly large eyes and looked back and forth between ryan i, seconds after birth, as if to say "you are my mom, and you are my dad...i know you". i remember her imitating our smiles in those first few hours.  recovery after her 6lbs 9 oz was a cinch - and i had no lingering negative side effects despite the long needle inserted into my spine (for which i am grateful). i love her "pazel" eyes, as charlie calls them.  she shares them with me, two of her brothers, my grand and great grandmothers.  i adore her off-key singing, undoubtedly inherited from me.  i remember thinking a i had a lovely voice up to a certain age.  she suffers from the same delusion, and i let her enjoy it. she is a child who needs her space, her peace and her things just so.  i'm learning to respect that and cultivate more of it in my day to day. 
we were incredibly blessed this week, and avoided what could have been really awful.  tuesday we decided to go the newly constructed pool in raymond, a neighboring small town.  it was finished last summer, but we were too busy being pregnant and then with a new baby to go.  it's outdoor with waterslides that are kid-friendly.  our first mistake was the choice of day: it was the day after school let out, so everyone else had the same idea.  i saw people from neighboring towns in all directions, some as far away as an hour.  so it was packed, especially since we showed up around 3:30, right in the thick of things.  then we were in a rush. we whipped off our clothes, sprinting around the changing room, stressed out and anxious to get out there and enjoy ourselves.  then jacob ran out of the changing room and i sent my mom after him, forgetting that she was holding the baby.  i was struggling to collapse my carriage of a double stroller on the slickery floors when i heard a collosal thud, a moan, and then a shout of "get the baby, get the baby!" i leapt over my stroller, and saw my mom flat on her back on the wet cement floor, henry in arms, and he was sobbing. i grabbed him and tried to help her up, but her face was ashen as she said
don't worry about me, is henry okay? then i saw the blood on the floor from the spot where i had gently scooped up my 11 month old.  i felt sick then, when i remembered how he was positioned in her arms.  was that thunk his head? i didn't want to examine him, but i did.  i could find nothing where the blood could have been coming from, but worried i was missing something as there was blood pooling where i was standing and my mom was still laying on the floor.  i found nothing and he quieted down.  of all the adults witnessing this, one  13 year old was the hero - she helped my mom up, alerted the staff, and asked me what i needed her to do.  i was still in a state of semi-shock, so i just kept checking over the baby. she asked me, gently, 3 more times.  i responded she should find my nephew, who was waiting outside, and told her what he was wearing.  we discovered the source of the blood - my mom's elbow apparently took the impact of the fall and split open. my leg was cut, (i guess i didn't clear my stroller).  so we ended up in first the emergency room, and later a clinic so my mom could get 2 stitches in her elbow. when i think of how henry could have been the one in the ER, i still feel nauseated.  how blessed we were thatday - i am grateful for my mother's instincts to protect my baby ith no thought to her own injuries.  i am grateful for bodies that react instinctively to protect us and those need our protection - like little henry.  i am thankful for the young girl who was taught well and took care of us, securing the help we needed and behaving wise beyond her years.  we were blessed, just like always.