Quinny

She's fierce and she's private, strong and incredibly tender. 

She beats up her brother one second and the next splits a granola bar in half because it's the last one and she doesn't want Mama to go without. 

A third grader said to her at recess last week, "You're so tall I thought you were in fifth grade" and I've heard her retell that story to me and Aunt Ash and her dad and all her siblings because being tall and being mistaken for an older girl is the epitome of her cool. 

She loves tickling baby feet and shopping for oversized t-shirts in the boys section. 

She loves soccer and reading and Pokemon and Minecraft and playing basketball at recess with Ginny and Ka'i and Adam and Amy the TA and sometimes some older kids too, she'll have you know. 

She looked at herself in the mirror this morning while I was doing her hair and said, "I'm beautiful, it's perfect" and I couldn't have been more proud of the person she loves. I mean, perfect is an understatement if you ask me--there aren't words to express the magic of this girl--but I'm well aware that it's infinitely more important that she feels that way about herself. 

She's the kind of person who takes the smallest slice of sacrament bread because she wants her siblings to have the biggest piece and spends her classroom money on pencils and erasers and little gifts for others. 

She's constantly sneaking money into the grocery store that she can put in the charity bin because she wants to help and love others. 

She scores goal after goal in her soccer game, and runs around the field until she's cherry red but hates taking a break and refuses to give up, even if the score is 20-1 and not in her favor. 

She's quiet, often camouflaging big feelings with an "everything's ok" sunshiney smile until her dark brown eyes betray her with tears and untold tales that only Mama notices. And sometimes, those stories are saved for her journal alone. She comes home from school and hides in the classroom for awhile so that she can write, write, write. She processes the world through paper and pen these days with dreams of someday being a writer and a builder. There is no doubt in my mind that she'll accomplish anything she wants. 

Quinny Best of All Worlds Wigginton is her name, and I love her.