She is 5

Livi made me a Mommy. Five years ago yesterday, I was in labor, with an epidural looming. Around 8:30pm Livi splashed in to the world and changed all of our lives!

Livi has taught me so much in her short five years and I couldn't be happier being her mommy.

Turning 5 was a very big deal. She has been looking forward to it all year! I think watching all her friends in preschool turn 5 she was anxious for her turn. I also think she believed turning 5 was going to magically make her a 'big kid' who could do everything.

While she can't do everything, she can do a lot! She can crack eggs, measure ingredients, put peanut butter on her toast and almost has the hang of the honey too. She can cut some of her own food and write her name. If we tell her the letters she can write any words. She knows her alphabet and numbers up to almost 60 I think, her address, her phone number, and 911. She can do a head stand against the wall and almost a solo one in the middle of the room. She can do back and front somersaults. She can jump in to the deep end of the pool and swim back up to the side with out a floaty. She can get across the monkey bars. She can wash her own body in the shower. She knows a lot about dinosaurs and insects and animals and manners and our body and life in general.

Livi is a passionate and vivacious child. She puts her all in to everything. She is emotional and excellent at telling us her full range of feelings. She is very articulate and speaks with all of her body. She has some anxiety and feels over responsible some times but she comes by those feelings honestly. We are trying to help her through some of that. She loves being a sister and is AMAZING at it. She has so much love for those in her circle and lets us all know it. She is confident and aware. She has no fear. She keeps trying, even through tears. She is accepting and empathetic. Livi is incredible in so many ways. She has taught me more than she will ever know.

Since we had her party, joint with Sofie, in June we had a low key day. On Monday we had taken her and Sofie to the water slides, which was part of our family birthday celebration. I made her requested dinner, which was ribs. That decision was between salmon sashimi and ribs, by the way and took her a week to decide. I also made a cake in the shape of the number 5. This was not a surprise. Her helping me bake is as much fun for her as eating the cake. Then I took her out for her annual birthday photo shoot. She is pretty easy to take pictures of and I loved the lighting in the evening!

I love you Livi! To the stars and back and around the world one hundred million, eighty three thousand million times plus one :)

Happy Birthday 5 year old!

And because I didn't have a Mac back when Livi turned 1, she gets a five year old slide show!

You amazing!