One of Sophie’s wishes for her 8th birthday is to stay up all night. I’ll let you know how that goes. This song by Frances England is in heavy rotation on the kids channel on satellite radio — and every time I hear it, I think of Sophie.

Oh, Sophie. You do have a mind of your own, my sweet, impossible girl, and while you exhaust me, I never get tired of trying to figure out just what’s going on in there.  My greatest wish for you (a naive one, I know — but isn’t that the best kind of wish?) is that this line in the song comes true:

“And someday I’ll be the one who makes my own decisions.”

Meantime, we’ll celebrate with purple-tinted mint chocolate chip cupcakes, lots of paintbrushes, and an all-nighter with your best friend, just as you demanded, er, requested.