Five

Someone in our house turned five about three weeks ago. Can you tell someone else is excited about that fact?

I may have posted that picture before, but it's just so funny that I had to include it with the birthday pictures. Miss Mouse is holding her green caterpillar balloon, quickly dubbed "Happy", while she is letting Sunny hold a happy birthday balloon from one of her friends. Sunny's free grocery store balloon that I brought home with "Happy" popped on the ceiling about 15 minutes into playing with it. Miss Mouse didn't even let Sunny think about being sad, rushing in with, "You can share my balloon!" right away.

That's our sweet five year old.

Miss Mouse made out with a haul of balloons this year, an absolute haul of them! Dora came from Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dick (along with the purple one for Sunny....that one lasted two days before Sunny decided to pop it herself with a pen....); the white happy birthday one came from a friend; and this is just a bit better view of "Happy". Miss Mouse is somewhere under them.

I have a lot of cute pictures from Miss Mouse's party, but I love this one of our friends who are getting ready to move westward. We've babysat little K since she was just a few months old, and the girls spent time with K and her mom every other week for that same time period. It's been such fun to see her grow up and turn into a 2-year old! I love how she is smiling so silly! That's what makes 2-year-olds so fun, I think; they get senses of humor! Anyway, the girls are very sad their little friend is moving, but they're also pretty excited to go see her someday at her home in "the mountains".

This was how we began the birthday. No. Actually, the birthday began by Miss Mouse singing at the top of her lungs, "It's my birthday day today! It's my birthday day!". Thankfully, Sunny was already up. No doubt Miss Mouse checked on that before she broke out into song. She's just like that.

I have to say this birthday was the most fun so far because of how long it was anticipated and how enthusiastically it was welcomed by both girls. Sunny was as excited to have her sis turn five as Miss Mouse was to be five. It's lovely to see what good friends they are turning out to be. It's really hard work to teach them how to maintain that day after day after day, but seeing the two of them breakfasting in bed.....it's one of the things that reminds me why I do what I do.

The biggest excitement of the day for Miss Mouse was the beginning of her nailpolish-wearing-days. Look at those plain, naked, little girl hands. It honestly does seem like just yesterday they were so teeny-tiny that I didn't know how to clip the nails on them! Daddy did it because I was too nervous! It didn't take long, but how they've grown into such big girl hands.....so quickly.....

And as quickly as nailpolish can dry, those naked little girl hands turned into polished, big girl hands. The green nailpolish was her gift from Mommy and Daddy; she knew it was coming; she just didn't know for sure what color she would get.

The girls skyped with Grammy and Grandpa Bob. Miss Mouse was most concerned about showing off her new nailpolish. Sunny wanted to show how she matched Big Sister.

Our little Miss Mouse....small still....yet if the next five years go as quickly as the last five, and then if the five after that go just as quickly, followed by the five after that.....Whew. It just makes me all the more determined to slow down and appreciate each moment of each day. I had to put the left picture in because I can't even count how often that exact expression has been on her Daddy's face.

One of the favorite "party games" was the girls' bowling game. I find it difficult to set up, crazy to get to stay up, and generally a really great mess-maker and ankle-breaking-risk (sorry Grammy and Grandpa Bob who got it for them for Halloween a year ago!). It takes a lot of patience for me usually when we break it out. This day, though, wow, it had A., A., and Miss Mouse enthralled! They couldn't hardly get enough of bowling. That is, until the hula hoops were discovered, at which point throwing the party favor mini-beach balls through the hula hoops became a new favorite game.

I loved it because there was no parent-preparation-fancy-made-up-games necessary. These kiddos just made up their own which were far more awesome and kept their attention longer than anything I could have dreamed up. Just a plug - most of these kiddos have parents who go pretty light on the television - and I have some fairly strong opinions about that having a definite effect on their creativity in play when they get together.....It was just fun to see the payoff, I guess.

One of our goddaughters, who happened to be "the" big girl at the party, helped the two smaller girls build this block contraption. When I asked if it was a castle, which our goddaughter has often built at our house in the past, I was told that, "No. It's a pen for the little girls". Um, okay? Both little ones seemed determined that it was for Gertie the Goat. Yes, I know she looks like a giraffe. Just trust me, she morphed into a goat long ago and even wins most of the goat shows into which she is entered.
That Mr. A will soon be five amazes me no less than the fact that we have a five-year-old at our house. He and Miss Mouse were together nearly every week through their babyhood, really until their mommies added their siblings to the equation. He's still one of her sweetest friends around.

Grandpa Dick made a good friend at the party. Little Miss H doesn't even usually like men, but she cuddled up to Grandpa Dick like they'd been best buds for years (well, okay, she's only two, so best buds for months might be more appropo).

I'll finish the picture montage with one of Miss Mouse and her much-anticipated dirt cake. With three February birthdays, I needed to mix things up a bit in the cake arena, so I explained dirt cake to Miss Mouse and was, of course, given the go ahead. She carried the gummy worms around the house for days, showing them to any visitors we had, the neighbors, everyone. The real thing did not disappoint her, either. I made two batches and had far too much left over in my opinion but not in hers! We ate it until I thought I'd puke if I ate another serving. She would quite possibly eat it everyday for the rest of her life happily. I think we've found "her" cake. Of course, she's such a self-controlled little thing that she'd leave any for which she was too full which reassured me that it was fine to have all those leftovers around!

A few final words about our five-year-old Miss Mouse......Every year I think that I can't love her anymore than I do. Every year that passes, though, I love her more.

I love how her hair smells slightly of chlorine most days now.

I love how she throws herself into the pool with gusto.

I love her confidence as she swims her long body through the pool in a backstroke, or a front crawl, or a whip kick.

I love her sweetness when she refers to her little sister as "Oh, Honey", even though it irritates the heck out of Sunny.

I love how she can sound out any word with a short vowel sound, with just some help with words containing digraphs.

I love to hear her read.

I love to see her sprawled on her bed reading the latest book I've written on construction paper for her to illustrate and read.

I love how she has a constant need to work on "projects".

I love how I can tell almost instantaneously when something bothers her....a twitch of the lip, a sideways glance of the eyes, a flick of the tongue.....to know her well enough to read her signals.....it's an incredibly huge privilege and responsibility.

I love how, even though we're working toward being able to read classic stories like "The Three Little Pigs" that might be a little scary, she is so sensitive to others' feelings that she would rather not watch most tv shows since most of them involve someone getting either physically or emotionally injured.

I love how, even though she won't watch it on television, she can communicate when her feelings are hurt, can understand when she's hurt others, and knows how to deal with it - apologizing & forgiving.

I love how she prays before her meal even if I'm not at the table yet; she won't eat without praying, even if she has to just say it by herself.

I love how simple it is to her that we are to love God and serve Him by loving others.

I love her.

Happy Birthday, Miss Mouse. Thank you for an incredible five years.