I dreamt up Skylar long before we first met her sixteen years ago. Just a kid myself, I’d turn to the sky and wish upon a star.

Starlight star bright first star I see tonight, I wish I may; I wish I might have this wish I wish tonight–to be a singer someday.

And as life would have it, I grew up and was meant to be a writer instead. My wish wasn’t lost, it just took on a new form: I got daughters who could sing.

Good thing, I didn’t know the first thing about singing back then.

Unless you count the “shows” my friend and I produced and starred in (our Moms knew we were adorable).

It wasn’t enough to sing my heart out at a concert and pretend those fans clapped and cheered for me. And the lighters that flickered, like the night sky, touched us all (because of my ability to sing)!

And all those dreams culminated when I got on stage and sang Ribbons Down My Back as Mrs. Malloy in my 8th Grade production of Hello Dolly. (Thank goodness the videotape got destroyed, so we still have Mom’s word that I was spectacular).

I knew then that singing wasn’t in the cards. But I met Alex in the sky. So when we saw a beautiful blond-haired girl in a NYC diner who happened to be called Skylar, we instinctively knew that’s what we’ll name our daughter one day.

And so it came to pass that our daughter Skylar was born. She forged a life out of my childhood dream to be a singer.

(Maybe that’s why they say, be careful what you wish for).

But after sixteen years, Skylar’s way beyond the point of needing me to wish her into existence anymore. She’s found her own stars to wish upon and she’s done an incredible job of making those wishes come true. Here they are…

Sky’s Sweet 16 Wishes Come True:

1. She was merely a wish when we knew her name (but you know this).

2. I took her to Broadway Baby Mommy and Me classes when she couldn’t talk, let alone sing.

3. She had an insanely long attention span that could get her involved in an activity for hours. So we knew she had to go to Montessori, where she’d have the freedom to work without disruptions.

4. School days meant more to her than anything. She once said to me, “My favorite time of the day is when I go to school. The saddest is when you have to pick me up.”

5. She desperately wanted to read. Her Montessori teacher worried that she wasn’t reading at age two. As absurd as it seemed, we did as she said and bought flashcards so Sky could start memorizing simple words.

6. At an audition that she elected to go to, Skylar was worried that she couldn’t read. I worked with her so she knew the script to the commercial, but to be safe I told the lady, “My daughter can’t read, but she’s memorized the lines.”

Skylar went in and pretended to read the script anyway and then after acing the acting part, she asked if she could sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

7. At 5-years old, Skylar saw her first microphone at my cousin’s wedding, when she learned that was the name for it, she came to life. She wanted to speak in it. Great! Alex had stayed home with the baby, so I said, “Pop Pop’s good at making speeches. Go ask him to help you.”

8. Skylar nixed the speech, and sang the National Anthem, instead. To my surprise, not horror, Skylar knew all the words (it was a staple from Montessori graduation every year). She looked and sounded like she’d been singing her entire life.

9. That wedding, I also learned how practical Skylar would be. As the flower girl, she refused to wear the butterfly wings she requested in the first place because they itched. Luckily, we still had the cloth napkins from room service, which I used to wrap around the itchy part. Disaster averted!

10. One year later, there was another microphone, another wedding, and to prove she wasn’t a one-hit-wonder, she belted out the National Anthem again, only this time Alex saw it, too.

11. When we saw a local production of The Wizard of Oz, we didn’t know anyone in community theater until we spotted Skylar’s dear music teacher in the orchestra. That day proved instrumental 5-years later, when dear Erin introduced Skylar to that world.

Skylar was Amaryllis in Music Man. One day at practice, the director gave her notes to Skylar, including “you’re over-acting.” I wanted to die for her. But Skylar took the new direction without missing a beat. The next take Skylar did everything the director had asked.

12. We started learning that Skylar needs an audience to come to life, and small audiences don’t cut it. She wanted to sing the National Anthem at the 76ers game, and in 6th Grade, she asked Pop Pop if he could make that happen. (Even still, I wasn’t getting involved in such a crazy idea)!

Gearing up for the big event, Skylar kept doing kid things: going to school, playing with her sister, wanting to watch TV whenever she could, much to Alex and my dismay—did she have any idea what she had gotten herself into?

After standing center court and singing, she turned to me and said, “I wish there had been more people. And when it was all over, she said she couldn’t make herself frown even though she had to because her cheeks hurt from all that smiling.

13. She can solve any problem that arises on stage. When she was asked to be the understudy for Flounder in Little Mermaid, she had three weeks to prepare and learn how to roll around and dance in wheelies.

Or the time when her costume got stuck to Evita in the middle of a song. Skylar knew she had very little time before the end when Evita’s arms would go up in the air and Skylar’s would go along with her.

Somehow Skylar managed to sing, act like everything was perfectly normal and disengage herself. We had no idea until Skylar told us afterwards.

Just don’t ask her how to do either of those things at home.

14. Forever dedicated to her craft and worried about germs, Skylar wouldn’t come near me when I got the flu one week before her performance as Dorothy in her 8th Grade production of Wizard of Oz. She stayed so clear of me, she wouldn’t even call me on the phone.

15. Of course, the 76ers wasn’t enough. Skylar still wished to sing for the Phillies. So last year, she did just that.

But during soundcheck, she was having trouble with the delay between her words and the sound system. Since she hadn’t practiced with headphones, she had to sing and hear herself a second or two later. She got out there danced with the Philly Fanatic, and no one ever knew how hard it was.

16. And here we are on her sixteenth wish that came true. Did I fail to mention that she can write, too? She’s written over a hundred songs, and she writes books in her spare time. She even edits my blog when I’m desperate to get it out.

But she started combining talents with her sister and they’re plugging away at their Youtube channel.

I dreamed you up dear Skylar long before we met! But you’ve proven that you’re no longer a wish–you’re a gift come true. I love you to the moon, stars, and sky, to heaven and back down again.