Eight is enough

Daydreaming in Italy. 

It's Lil's birthday today. Eight years old! How can that even be possible? And yet, I look at Lil and she is indeed eight years old. She's tall and lanky. She's got all these new teeth. Her face has changed shaped. She laughs a lot. I'm so proud of her.

Seven was a tough year for her learning a lot of life lessons, but I have a good feeling about eight. She has a good group of friends, she's well liked. She was just voted as her class representative on the student council. She loves school and being part of it all.

She still loves to sing and dance and draw. She wants to be "a famous artist, just like Aunty Shell". She tells me, "I want to paint my feelings and share them". She loves to learn about great people in history and is always giving me facts about Rosa Parks, Marie Curie and Queen Victoria.

She still loves spaghetti bolognese more than anything else, except maybe sushi.

She loves to travel and try new food (although she'll never try them at home) - giant sausages and prunes wrapped in bacon in Germany. Different pastas in Italy. Fish dishes in Slovenia. Rice and meat in Oman. She really wants a suitcase all of her own to travel with and gets excited about visiting new places – even if it's only a hour stopover! She has a long list of places she wants to visit.

She misses her family and gets nostalgic about all things Australian. She misses her Australian accent. Although she loves Dubai and loves to show people her adopted home.

She still wakes at the crack of dawn and sleeps in, well, never. No matter how late she's been up the night before. She's definitely a lark.

She's very sweet, very polite. She's very kind yet very dramatic and emotional. She loves to day dream. She can walk for miles without a whinge.

She's our Lil-lil.