Well today's the day, fingers crossed that it goes right. I have a whole day planned for Summer and I and tomorrow will be her party with friends. First I make her a special birthday breakfast of waffles with chocolate syrup and a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, then we get dressed and go to any places of her choice before it gets dark and we come back home, make her cake and she can open her presents. I put her food on the table and went upstairs to wake her up.
"Who's the special birthday girl today?" I said, tickling her tummy.
"Me." She sang, matching my tone. "And that's why you should let me sleep." She pulled her blanket over head.
"Ok, I guess I'll just go eat your waffle and ice cream." I said, standing up and walking to the door. She jumped out of bed and followed me downstairs.
"This is already the best birthday ever." She said as she sat in front of her breakfast. "God, I've never seen anything more beautiful in my entire life." She stared at it as if it were her baby.
"Aren't you going to eat it?" She put her hand out.
"Can I have your phone?" I typed in my new password and handed it to her. She took a picture of the waffle that now looked like a chocolatey mess after the ice cream melted. "Now I can eat it."
After breakfast, I dressed Summer in a plain white dress and a leather jacket. She had claimed that this was a magical dress that gave her birthday powers. She twirled around while we walked to the car. "Where to first kiddo?" I asked. She thought about it for a second.
"Let's go visit the other kids at the orphanage!"
"Are you sure you want to do that on your birthday? We could go another day." She shook her head.
"When I was there, all I ever wanted was to have a special birthday. All I got on my birthday last year was a song, a towel and a mop. The mop and towel were already there, it was my day to clean the kitchen. Anyway... I don't think it's very fair that I get to have all of this fun if no one else gets to."
"But Summer, we can't bring all if those kids with us."
"Who said anything about going anywhere..."
"You want to spend your birthday in an orphanage?"
"Yes."
"Whatever you say." So I got directions to the orphanage.
When we got there Summer unbuckled herself and waited impatiently for me to open the door. Walking in, I noticed children's drawings. One of them caught my eye, it was a picture of a little boy and a man and woman. 'My dream family' it said In messy writing above. "Mommy, come on!" We walked up to the front desk.
"Ms. Swift, how nice seeing you here. Is there anything I can do for you?"
"It's nice to see you too, Summer just wanted to visit all of the kids." I could see Summer trying to see over the desk so I lifted her up.
"Oh she's gotten so big." She gushed. "You'd think after all these years at least one person would come back to visit but you're the first."
"Here I made you this, it's a thank you card." Summer pulled a blue piece of construction paper that had been folded in half. I don't understand how she does all of these things without me noticing. Last week she donated 400 dollars to two charities and I didn't find out until yesterday. Ms. Cedar read it and smiled at Summer.
"Oh, I love it. I'll put it on my desk so I can look at it every day."
"By the way I'm loving the outfit today, yellow totes suits you." Summer said.
"Thank you. I'll call down the rest of the children." She walked up the stairs and I looked at my daughter.
"Totes?" I asked.
"Full words are a thing of the past. You gotta get with the now, mom." She sighed. I laughed and kissed the top of her head.
"I love you."
"And I love Cake."
"Excuse me?" I said, pretending to be shocked.
"Oh yeah, you're cool too." --
I've noticed a lot of things about summer that have changed in the past year. She's gotten a lot taller and a bunch of other physical changes, but probably the most astonishing change is how social she's become. The first day that I met her, she automatically opened up to me but she was really quiet and shy around other people. After a few months she would sort of talk to people but now, she can literally walk up to a random stranger and tell them to have a nice day. She really is one of the sweetest kids I've ever met, I'm glad the sudden fame hadn't gone to her head. We were sitting in the lounge now, summer was telling the other kids a story while they ate the cake I had made. It's nine O' clock at night and we've been here all day but summer insisted on staying. I keep telling her we need to go but she just keeps on saying "five more minutes, mommy." I find it really hard to say no to her and I'm trying but she's just too cute.
"Ok, it's an hour past your bedtime bug, time to go home." I said standing up.
"But mommy—"
"You need to get to bed, say goodbye and let's go." She sighed, she never argues about anything, at least with me she doesn't. I say goodbye to all the kids and ms. Cedar.
"They absolutely adore her, I've heard kids that haven't spoken in years talking. She really is something special." She says as We walked out.
"Yeah, I'm pretty lucky to have this little munchkin." I ruffled Summer's hair and she giggled. It's pouring down rain outside and summer doesn't have a hood. Before I could put something over her head she ran out of the door, jumping in every single muddy puddle and got her white dress all dirty. She twirled around and danced. Then she stopped.
"Mommy, come dance with me!" So I grabbed her hand and spun her around a few times. She just laughed and laughed until she fell to the ground. Not minding getting a little dirty, I sat down next to her. We probably looked insane to anyone who was watching but we didn't care. "This really is the best birthday. Because I have you."
"You've made this the best year ever, what would I ever do without you?"
"Probably not this." She said, yawning.
"You're exhausted."
"Am not."
"Are too." ----------- A little bit of a longer chapter :) and probably one of my favorites so far. I think I'm going to change the title to extraordinary and the cover would look like this.
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Or I could keep the same title and same cover, tell me what you think (I really like the first idea) -Maya
