I blinked and she's 5!

The days can be long but the years go by so quickly. It seems that I blinked and my baby girl is no longer a baby. Just 5 years ago this little one was safely tucked away in my tummy. I think at about this time I was wrapping things up at work, putting the final touches on her room, trying to relax and completely CLUELESS about what the future as a parent would bring.

She is still my single greatest accomplishment (Her brother will have to prove himself still :) She's not perfect, but she would be way more boring if she was. In 5 short years I have learned what it really means to have a selfless kind of love and devotion. Sure, she frustrates the HELL out of us at times (remind me sometime to fill you in about the "painting" in the bathroom with soap) but she is completely her own. 100% unique and such an incredible addition to our lives.

So as she enters her 5th year of life, I wanted to let her know who she is now.

She is beautiful, inside and out. She is funny. She has the best belly laugh/giggle I have ever heard and nothing delights us more than to hear it. She is incredibly smart, sometimes too smart for her own good. She is mischievous, though she might argue she's just creative. She is loving. She is innocent. She can be lazy. She can be incredibly outgoing saying to a gentleman on the street "Hello, Mister!" much to his shock. She can be very shy. She is kind. She is confounded by cruelty.

She loves apples, vietnamese noodles and especially the marinated shredded carrots, her gramma, chocolate milk, pistachios, the playground, Gramma, Mrs. Jeannie, Butterdog, all other animals, Max (though she won't always admit it), Johanna, did I mention GRAMMA, and her mom and dad!

My only goal in life is to get her to adulthood, knowing who she is and what she wants. Her dad would laugh now and say that that goal has already been accomplished. Raising a daughter is an amazing opportunity to tell someone everything you wish you knew, heard, & believed when you were younger and not so sure of yourself.