Twelve Years of our Little Pickle

Dear LP

Happy Birthday! I can’t believe you are twelve already, and that I’ve been a mum for twelve whole years! I love writing these letters to you each year and hope they give you something to look back on in the future.

This year has been a big one for you – your first year at secondary school! You embraced it fully, doing so many clubs, making new friends and really taking it in your stride. You got so many achievement points, took part in a show and even went on a day trip to France. What a year! We are so proud of you and cannot wait to see where Year 8 takes you!

As well as your trip to France we’ve also been to Cornwall, Hayling Island, Barcelona and St Lucia as a family this year and you are now so well travelled. I think you’ve visited a country for every year of your life, maybe more. You love seeing the world and already have a list of places you’d like to go in the future – Venice, Milan, California – and new places being added all the time.

Right now you have a couple of wobbly teeth – something that we haven’t had in a while and a reminder that you’re not all grown up just yet. Somewhere along the line you started wearing the same size clothes as your age and aren’t teenie tiny anymore! You have size 4.5 feet and are nearly as tall as me. You’re so big now but you still give amazing cuddles!

This year for you has mostly been about your phone and Roblox! You would spend all your time on your phone or gaming if we let you and it’s lovely when you leave your phone at home for a day or plug it in the other room to charge.

That said, it’s lovely that you have a phone, can keep in touch with your friends and can make plans with them. I love that you have so many friends and have such banter with them. But, I think I’ve heard ‘fam’ and ‘slay’ enough to last me a lifetime!

You still love music – Taylor Swift and Katy Perry are your favourites but it’s great hearing you singing along to so much music – and so much from before you were even born. You have such diverse, eclectic taste where music is concerned. We even took you to see ABBA Voyage recently and you loved it – nearly as much as I did!

This year we renovated your room for you – getting you a new bed, new wardrobe and painting it a nice light purple. It’s now a very grown up space perfect for you. The room has grown and changed with you over the years and it’s now back to purple, the colour it was when you first had the room as a toddler.

You’ve discovered crochet this year and also bracelet making and it’s lovely that you have interests that don’t involve screens. Crochet began after you went to a club at school and I do wonder what other interests you’ll get in the future.

LP, you are the best company. In St Lucia this summer we went paddleboarding together and you wanted to give it a go because you knew it was something that made me happy. But then, you really enjoyed it and asked if we could do it together at home. Doing things with you brings me such joy.

You are now very much your own person. You have your own interests, your own likes and dislikes and it’s lovely seeing you finding these things. You discovered High School Musical the series recently and devoured it – and are now working your way through Greenhouse Academy. You’ve generally discovered the world of TV series and it’s lovely when you find something new to watch.

We’ve also started watching a few teen movies recently – High School Musical, Pitch Perfect, Mean Girls etc and you love how more films are opening up to you as you get older. You also still love Star Wars and watching anything Star Wars related with your Daddy and brother.

LP, we love you so much and we love watching you grow. Being your parents is an absolute pleasure and we could not be more proud of the young woman you are becoming. Thank you for being you Little Pickle. Here’s to twelve years of you and the whole year ahead of you.

Lots of love

Mummy and Daddy xx