Five years old

Five years ago, I gave birth to this sweet and happy little girl.

Oh me, oh my. She is more perfect than I could have ever dreamed true. And she makes my heart swell with pride every single day. And sometimes I just grab Chris’s hand and squeeze it real tight and say, WE MADE HER! We are part of the reason she is so amazing. WE DID THAT. And just when we think we have no idea what we are doing and totally failing as parents, we’ll steal glimpses of Taylor singing, dancing, pretending, coloring, twirling, giggling or just being adorable, and we fist pump the air. We’ve done a good job so far. Because she’s perfect to us.  

Gone are the sweet chubby cheeks that once hung below her chin. Yes, I smooched those off years ago. Gone are her soft chunky arms and thighs that looked like they had rubber bands wrapped around them. In the last months, my daughter has sprouted arms and legs. She is leaning out, and if you look hard enough, you can peek in and get a preview of what she might look like as a young lady. She’s beautiful.

She’s become this real little person, with a very sweet, yet persistent, personality. And now that we’ve got a full-blown toddler boy under our roof, Taylor has eagerly accepted the role of the Big Girl. She refuses to ride in strollers or shopping carts, she wants to watch Good Luck Charlie over Doc McStuffins. She begged me to get her Shimmer Body Art for her birthday. And I did. Because she still holds my hand when we’re in public.

And she’s FIVE! And that’s a big birthday. So we had to make sure she had the most special day in the history of forever.

It was a wonderful day, and it was made super doubly special by being able to play with her friends and FaceTime with so much of our family. She is not only very very important to Chris, Luke and I, but she is loved by a whole lot of people. It’s takes a village.

And all throughout the day of her birthday, starting in the wee hours of the morning, I would reminisce about what I was going through five years ago at that point of the day, and where we were at in the process of bringing Taylor into this world. Five years ago she made me a mother. And I’ll never be able to thank her enough for that. This is the best ever.