And, she's six.

Here she is turning three.
Then she turned four.
And, you guessed it, she turned five.

So, I guess it shouldn't have come as a surprise to me that yesterday she turned six.

When Brad got to the party I said, "Where is the P-R-E-S-E-N-T?" She immediately knew what I had spelled. How did that happen?

She was singing "Yesterday I was five" with one hand of five fingers in the air. Then she'd sing, "Today I'm six" and add another hand with another finger. Her age now needs two hands. When did that happen?

She was able to read her birthday card aloud herself. How did that happen?

And, we finished off the night with a purple cake with light pink frosting - at Natalie's request.

 In case you were wondering, Natalie did not turn 312. There weren't six regular candles, and we didn't have a "6" candle. We opted for 312 because 3 + 1 + 2 = 6.

Monday with Natalie

Natalie and I rang bells for the Salvation Army today. More about that later. Tonight, though, let me just tell you about why Natalie is so awesome.

Reason 1.
She reported that she would like a Barbie Doll for Christmas. You can imagine my excitement about this! I asked her what kind of Barbie she wanted. Her reply? "I want a Barb Barbie." That's right. She wants a Barbie that looks like me. Awesome.

Reason 2.
She has inherited my love of the word "seriously." Overheard, "For serious" and "Are you seriously?" She is still - clearly - learning how to use the word properly. It was seriously adorable.

How cool.

I was going to bore you with this week's meal plan. Then, I considered telling you about how I used last night to clean my bedroom for the first time since June. Then, this happened:

Natalie learned how to read. She read to me once before tonight, but tonight was the first time I busted out the camera.

Tonight, we were playing house. Natalie was the mom. She's wearing an apron because she was cooking us fish (from the toy fishing game) on the stove (also a toy) for dinner. I was the baby. She put me to bed and was reading me a story (I Like Bugs), so I could go to sleep because "that's the bed-time routine."

She starts kindergarten on Wednesday. I wished her luck before I left tonight. She just smiled and said, "I'll be fine." My heart melted. It was the weirdest feeling. Time just sort of sped up and in a matter of a blink I thought about kindergarten and driving and high school and prom and weddings. She suddenly went from five to thirty five.

Seriously. I don't know how you moms do it.

Dance

Natalie had her first dance recital Friday night. Between the big birthday on Wednesday and the dance recital, there is no mistaking that Natalie is not a little girl anymore. She is officially a kid.

I'm not sure that she's headed for a career as a ballerina, but she sure was adorable and brave.

I will say that the whole dance recital thing freaked me out just a little bit. I kept having flashes of Toddlers in Tiaras; there was plenty of blush and braided hair and glitter and beauty queen going on.

April 21: Then and Now

Five years ago my life got a whole lot more interesting.
Happy birthday, Miss Natalie.










Thank you to Nicky and Chris not just for being such great friends they must as well be family but also for letting us be part of the lives of their beautiful children. I am a better person because I've watched Natalie learn and grow.