5 Years Ago Today...

Happy 5th birthday, my dear, sweet, beautiful Marie. 

You, who first made me a mother; 

You, who first revealed to me that this gift for which I'd dared to hope--the ambiguous dream of motherhood--would so greatly exceed every last one of my expectations... 

You are a marvel and a mystery.
You are mischevious, energetic, persistent, and wildly imaginitive. 

You feel deeply and fully with your whole self. 

You desire to help and to teach. 

You also aim to lead and direct. 

Your silliness precedes you. 

You have so many radiant hopes, unblemished by the reality of the world we live in, and your capacity to love others so unreservedly is simply astounding. 

Your ideas inspire me. 

Your innocence renews me. 

Your grasp of the infinite and trust in the divine 

reaches beyond most adults' self-limited understanding and meager faith.

Including mine.

You teach me new things about yourself, about myself, and about the beautiful gift of motherhood 

every single day. 

So especially today, 

I will do my best to keep my eyes dry and your smile bright. 

I love you with all of my everything, sweet girl. 

Keep shining always.

First glimpse of our sweet darling's beautiful face!

 

Last day as a 4-year-old!

*                    *                    *

A week and a half ago, we squeezed in a Princess "beach" party per the birthday girl's request:

And today, we will surprise her with her very own new big girl desk and computer (my old mini laptop). She's constantly pretending to do "homework," and has told us for quite awhile now that playing on the computer is one of her very favorite things to do. So her thoughtful daddy came up with the idea to give our almost-kindergartner her own special space to be a big girl.

I don't think I've ever been so excited
to give a gift in my life!

And the verdict is....she loves it! So much, in fact, that she couldn't be bothered with my silly attempts to get her on video. She just ignored me and got right to work creating masterpieces on Paint!

And while daddy (who took the day off) took her to the movies, I got to play interior decorator and re-arrange her room to put the desk in its new home:

And Marie immediately set to work coloring, cutting, glue-sticking, and taping up her first "project" (after I told her no more computer because she'd had enough screen time for one day). I think it's safe to call it a success!