Best. Birthday. EVER!

Alita's refrain today was, "This is my best birthday EVER!"

Given that a decent portion of the day was spent standing wet and cold on a street in Coney Island it was music to my ears. She insists that the leg up for this particular birthday was that she met a real, live version of Ariel, one that might have been in the Broadway show (or at least the first bus & truck, we didn't ask). It might also have the tiniest bit to do with the fact that after the parade she was allowed to go swimming in the (freezing cold!) ocean but I don't want to contradict the birthday girl.

A day like this, one where you go to do something fun but there is adversity (see: pouring down like we were in a freaking dunk tank, a dunk tank in a gentle wind tunnel), could easily have turned sour. We observed tears and shivering and fits from many a young participant. With a lesser kid we might have had very little fun. With a lesser mom we might not have had the chance to try. We had bands on either side of us and we were not accompanied by a lesser kid and we chose to have fun. We were in fact accompanied by one of the best kids to walk the planet. I marvel at her every day and even exhausted and creaky as I am this evening I am enormously grateful to know a kid who chooses this way to celebrate her birthday, who chooses me as one of the people to spend it with and who navigates this world with such grace and joy.

I can't believe she's 8. I can't wait to see what it brings.