What a sweet tribute. I love having girls.

This is a wonderful piece you've written. I feel like I've been introduced to a great character.

Sometimes I still want to have a girl. But I'm also terrified of having one.

This is one of my favorite posts of yours. I don't know how to describe exactly why, really. All of your posts are good. There's just something about it.

i want you to know i came across your blog yesterday..
i am a blog stalker. lol!
i thought your picture looked like someone i knew..why?? ..so i looked to see why i knew you. after looking through your blog..i saw it..your book. i discovered Kirsten's sister! that is her book.
Kirsten is a friend i made on the interned on a lds email list long before she was pregnant with Ryan. anyway. small world. Linda Hoffman
i will keep you on my list

It takes a lot to raise a girl. Especially in these days! I don't envy you at all! (Though I have always wanted a girl.)

It takes even more effort to not enforce our personalities on our children, but allow them to develop their own.

Quite the tight rope parents must walk.

Great post!!

I love my girl...she is WAY girlie...but I was WAY not...so funny! :)

I always wanted to have boys. No girls, but the blogging world has honestly opened up my eyes, and I would love to have a daughter one day.

My first three children are boys - (and yes - very BOY boys!)... I was a tomboy growing up so this worked out just fine... and then I had girls... pink girls? sometimes, certainly more than I was... but girl enough that our mornings are full of hairdos and primping :)

Thanks Annette, I would love to have a girl too. Oops! I mean one who likes ballet and pink and dresses. Oh well! K--thank you! She's a real character, all right! But we love her anyway. :) Heather, yes, what you said, I know exactly what you mean. Her birthday post was a lot harder to write than my boy's were . . .I think it is b/c, well, I don't quite know why. It vexes me. Gramee--pls stalk away! I like comments better though! Yes, Kirsten is my sister but I had no idea I looked enough like her for someone to think twice about it. Most people think I look like my identical twin sister. Go figure. :) April--no doubt! And then there is our Big Guy--his tightrope is wayyyyyy up in the air and there is no net. sigh. .Shelle, that is good to know b/c it *looks* like you turned out all right (bwaahahaaa!). I think it would be awesome if my girl had a girlie girl. It would be such poetic justice! In fact, I am now saving my dolls for "her".

Beautifully said! I have loved having my girls and only hope that I can teach them everything I know (and more...is that possible?) so that they can go on to be the great queens I know they are.

I still have my favorite doll, too.

Kristina, I grew up in a family of 7 girls. You can see why I felt I must have one of my own, one I could dominate rather than be dominated (I am #6--yah!) I recommend them, anyway. T-I have to admit I don't mind the lack of primping and hair-dos before school though I would have dearly loved to mess with that stuff for church or after school or Saturdays. sigh . ..

Lara--yes! Yes yes and yes! Unfortunately, I still have pretty much all of my dolls and there were many. And then the books . . .oh me, oh my! I must make room for food storage and, er, um, chairs at the kitchen table.

That is so sweet!!

I was the SAME WAY. I was about 17? 18? When I actually turned into a girl. I first toyed with the curling iron when I was 19!

how sweet! she's lucky to have you. :) my favorite baby doll from childhood met an untimely demise when daniel pulled all her stuffing out through a ripped seam where her plastic leg attached to her soft body. katie brown, i still mourn your loss.

So perfectly written! Isn't it funny how opposite they see our intentions? Thanks for sharing, she really does sound like a gem! :)

Very sweet. I really wanted to have a boy first (because I thought I wouldn't know what to do with a girl), and I got the girliest of them all. Now I'm thinking, maybe we should have all girls.

I think I will copy that and post it in my home as a reminder of what a mother should be. So well written. I could feel the love you have for her. Make sure she gets a copy of it later down the road. I love reading you!

Such a sweet post. I'll bet she is the kind of girl I would love to know. I always sat the fence between being a girly girl and being a tomboy. It is a good place to be! Thanks, Heidi. In this post we see the creamy inside of you. :)

That was a really lovely post. Children are so unique, never quite what we expected, and always we learn so much from them. I wish that they could see themselves the way that we do.

Print this one out for her, when the moment feels right. It's a beautiful post about your beautiful girl.

Heather--YOU!!??! That is good to know. You are so nice and girly girly now. Jessica, you are too funny! Next time I see Daniel, I will give him a swat for you. He'll wonder why but I won't tell him. That's what aunties are for. Lassen fam--it does kind of drive me nuts but I don't think I really understood my intentions until I sat down to write this so I guess I can't expect her to. Mariko--I am sure my parents would say YES go for girls! My brother was more trouble than all us girls put together! (though I hear it is often the other way around) Jess-THANK YOU!! Kazzy--you mean I am like a hostess cupcake with a creamy inside? I LOVE hostess cupcakes and ding dongs. Yay me! Heatherlyn, no doubt! Jami, guess who got on the laptop whilst in her room and managed to find some wifi and read this post. Yah.

Great post, Heidi! It's funny how we always think we know what we want. Then we get something completely different and it ends up being way better.

Ooh, Oooh, oohh,
I totally just posted a song for her on my facecrack...
Go take a look.
(the Trace Adkins one, not the Rodney Atkins one... although maybe... that one too ;) )
Ever notice how awkward that is?
Inserting a little smiley doohickey and then adding another parentheeses? This computer has no spell check and I totally spelled that wrong.
Oh but hey, I could have done this:
☺
Yeah, I need to remember that next time.

Alyson, no doubt! Abra, cool! How sweet of you!

I didn't really start to become a girl until I hit my twenties. But look out for me now!

So nice to hear about your little girl. I got the exact same girl. I still can't get her to wear pink.

Great last line. It's so right on. hee hee

Beautifully done!

What a sweet and wonderful tribute to your dear daughter! You are blessed to have each other.

They are so different from us, aren't they? It amazes me.

This was lovely to read. Very sweet and true.

Thanks for making me cry this morning. You've really summed up something special about the push and pull of the mother-daughter relationship.

Alison, that's a relief--sometimes I really worry. I know she adores boys but will they adore her? That's the question. Crash--really? How funny! Wanna trade? (JK) Joy, Luisa, Becky, Heather--thanks so much! I appreciate the feedback very much!

What you feel about your daughter is beautiful. What a wonderful mother you are, to recognize her for who she is even though she's different than what you expected a girl to be like.

Rebecca--so sweet of you to say that! Thanks!

People keep using the word sweet. I'm not the biggest fan of that word, but it's the one I would use to describe this post, too. Sweet in the very best, most sincere sense of the word. I love your description of the struggles of teaching your daughter. I know it will be like that with Evie, but I hope she will be as good hearted as your baby doll! (I read Evie the note she left on your computer that you posted last week)

I just wanted to let you know that I finished your book last night and enjoyed it very much. It was quite a fun read and I especially laughed during the slipper game!

It's so fun to read a book of someone i "know" from blogging.

Girls are fabulous. My daughter is already outstripping me in so many ways!