Rollercoasters, Snapchat and Conversations About Anna NicoIe Smith

Perhaps it's fitting how much Dannielynn Birkhead loves rollercoasters when you consider the tedious climbs and sharp descents that marked her first year of life. 

There was the untimely passing of half-brother Daniel Smith, who overdosed while visiting mom Anna Nicole Smith and her newborn daughter in a Bahamian hospital, and the eerily similar death of the larger-than-life former Playboy model just months later. 

And, of course, the custody circus that ensued with freelance photographer Larry Birkhead, Smith's attorney Howard K. Stern and even Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt staking their claim for the 5-month-old. 

The weeks-long spectacle finally ended in April 2007 with Larry, paternity results in hand, stepping outside the Nassau courthouse to tell the reporters, photographers and curious locals that gathered, "I hate to be the one to say this but...I told you so."


So the fact that Larry now describes his little girls as fearless, the type of person who embraces all the twists, turns and heart-dropping falls that come her way? Yeah, that checks out.  

Of course, these days, Larry works hard to ensure Dannielynn's rollercoaster rides are of the literal variety. Despite the stranger-than-fiction events surrounding her birth and first few months, the middle schooler leads a life that's, by all accounts, fairly standard for any 12-year-old. At their 10,000-square-foot Kentucky home, she has a pet lizard, practices the violin, makes homemade slime and argues with Dad about how much time she spends on her cell phone. (She's obsessed with Snapchat, obvs.) But the two are still tight enough to plan joint Halloween costumes (this past year they chose an Exorcist theme), enjoy family trips to Dollywood and discuss the legacy left behind by Smith, who passed away at Florida's Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino 12 years ago today.

Having done away with their previous tradition of visiting Smith's final resting place in the Bahamas ("People would always try to catch us at the grave," Larry explains to E! News), they now opt for a more low-key practice. "I never want it to be a real heavy day," he says, "so we might get a cake and tell stories. But in our house, every day is Anna day. We talk about her and remember her all the time." 





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