She's 21!

It's here. She's done it. DoodleBug has gone and turned 21!

DoodleBug is our youngest lovely. She told me she would stay little and live with me forever. She lied. Well, she's still little- coming in at 5'5", she's the shortest lovely. But she did grow up. And she doesn't live with me...

DoodleBug is the only one of our girls to give herself the proverbial kid hair cut. Her sister, Breezy, was watching her (and by watching her I mean watching television) and then next thing they heard was, "I DON'T LIKE IT!!!" Poor DoodleBug was not happy with her new 'do'. I took her to the kids' salon and she got a really cute little bob.

DoodleBug HATED outgrowing things that she loved to wear. Like the Christmas dress that matched her Molly doll (from American Girl)- she wore that thing three years in a row. The first year it was a tiny bit big for her. The second year it was close to a perfect fit but bordered on a smidge small. The third year? Well, she wore it anyway. And then there were those shoes...they were just a pair of Keds' tennis shoes. She loved those things. I thought it was odd that she hadn't needed new shoes in so long. She was scrunching up her toes so she could keep wearing them.

She adored, and I mean ADORED, her kindergarten teacher. Maybe worshiped is a better word. At the end of the school year when the teacher, MM, was testing her kindergarteners for placement, she came to me so worried. "DoodleBug can't read! She doesn't know her letters or numbers! I know she DID know them, I just don't know what happened!" Come to find out, DoodleBug discovered that she was going to be going to first grade but that MM was going to be staying in kindergarten. So my child, that little stinker, figured out that if she acted like she didn't know these things, she would get to stay in kindergarten with MM.

DoodleBug has wanted to be a kindergarten teacher since that time. She is about to enter her senior year at the College of Charleston as an early childhood education major. Some teachers just make all the difference.

By third grade she was reading Dickens by herself and, by the time she reached high school, she had already read everything on the honors English reading list for freshman and sophomore years. Avid reader? To say the least.

DoodleBug still loves to dress up for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. If she's not in a costume, she's in a sweatshirt made by Mimi (my mother) to fit the holiday. So, she already dresses like a teacher. :)

She LOVES elderly folks. There were tea parties with Mama Lil (my grandmother) and Chinese Checkers with Great Mama (the husband's grandmother). There were 4 birthday years in a row that she held her parties at a retirement community. Each of her friends went around and helped the residents with the craft projects we brought along with us. The residents LOVED these birthday parties!

DoodleBug loves baseball and ultimate frisbee. And she is fierce on the field. At 5'5" you would think she would be cautious. Nope. That child is not scared of anything. She has an extreme sense of sarcasm and when she's mad it's best that you leave her alone. She was a band geek in high school all four years and is, to this day, proud of that--and wouldn't mind me telling y'all that each of her four years our band took FIRST PLACE at state. And they've been taking it ever since--if they do it this year, that will be 8 years in a row. Bright does not even begin to describe her intellect and, beyond intellect, she possesses wisdom. She is intensely loyal to her friends and family. And she's all about ladybugs.

Once she decides to commit to something, DoodleBug gives at least 110%, regardless. She is passionate about civil rights and will fight to the death for what she believes is right. She is not intimidated by authority figures and will speak out against wrongs/injustices and speak up for what is good/fair/just. She does NOT back down.

This child loves shrimp! When she could barely walk she would go from person to person out our gatherings and have people peel shrimp and feed them to her. Seriously, she would eat them until she was sick. She's still that way about shrimp.

She is the baby of the family and her sisters love her almost as much as she loves them. Because she loves them in a BIG way. When Breezy was off to college for her freshman year, DoodleBug and I were watching a Hallmark show on television. There was a commercial about two sisters. One was about to leave for college and the younger one gave her a birthday card. The older sister said something about her birthday not being for a few months and the little one said something about her not being home for it--- you know how it goes. Anyway, DoodleBug just cried and cried and then said, "Stupid Hallmark commercials!" She has desperately missed each and every sister as they left for college and other towns/states to live. 

But they always come home. And they'll all be here this weekend to celebrate their baby sister's 21st birthday. AND, we'll be having shrimp.

So, happy birthday my Doodle my Bug! You are loved beyond measure! To say that I am proud of you would be an understatement. I am so very glad that you were born!

There were three songs that I had to choose from for her birthday slideshow. I finally settled on this one---ENJOY!