It’s birthday season over here at the Grossman house. On Saturday, Naiya turned THIRTEEN!
Since my girls are only 12.5 months apart, we celebrate back-to-back birthdays right around the time it’s bonkers with the end of the school year. It’s the perfect way to begin summer and only sometimes, do I lose my mind trying to keep up.
These girls have been mostly inseparable their whole lives. Neither of them remember life without one another. To this day, they still share a room and a (king) bed.
I remember crying when I found out I was pregnant (again), because my first baby was only three months at the time. Pregnancies were not kind to me. Extreme nausea (they diagnosed it “hyperemesis gravidarum”) led to hospital visits for dehydration, which led to a pump that intraveneously pumped zofran (anti-nausea medicine) into my body. Since I couldn’t keep anything down, including the oral version of the medicine or the water needed to swallow the pill.
The day we brought Naiya home from the hospital, Alexia just bawled her eyes out once she realized this baby was here to stay…
But this girl, Naiya, has been nothing but a spark of JOY in our family! Life would certainly not be as FUN without her!
Naiya May, how in the world can you possibly be THIRTEEN?!
Ryan and I are beside ourselves that we officially have two teenagers in the house.
Naiya is my legit mini-me. There have been countless times I have looked at her and have had to do a double-take, because I feel like I’m looking at pictures of myself growing up…
She has been committed to the business of keeping us entertained from the get-go…
Anytime music came on, she was breaking it down…
By the time she was two, Ryan and I had conversations about changing her middle name to “Joy”. She still to this day exudes JOY! She’s a bright spark everywhere she goes. She’s a firecracker, spunky, gets right to the point, but also has such a softness to her, and her wells are deep when it comes to entering into conversations of meaningful topics and relational issues.
We can’t imagine life without her, and having our girls be so close in age has ended up being the gift of a lifetime.
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
And now, Naiya, you are THIRTEEN. What the what?
Naiya is our performer. She aims to make herself laugh, first and foremost, as well as everyone else around her. She is spunky, feisty, unafraid of speaking her mind, very intentional about how to handle relational dynamics with care, honesty, authenticity, and freedom. She is loud, funny, and is ready to make her mark on this world. Naiya is humble, willing to be vulnerable, has great boundaries, and has such a tenderness towards God.
She is my early to bed, early to rise, loves creating-drawing, writing, crafting, she loves all things pretty and all things dainty and miniature, she loves a good theme and color scheme, she is crazy fast on the soccer field (I can’t wait to see her in track!), she has always been a climber (which was exhausting when she was a toddler), and she likes a neat and tidy room. She is diligent with school, could take a hard pass on house chores, is extremely competitive, and her wit has me doubled over at times. She is a care-taker, loves babies and kids, is gifted at coming up with games/activities spontaneously, and has such a big imagination.
I love this girl so much! This season of teenagers has been rough some days, but mostly it has been fun, exciting, hilarious, and a glimpse of what life will look like having a friendship with our daughters.
Naiya May, we are so proud of you and who you are becoming! You are JOY and you bring so much laughter to our family!
