Happy 5th Birthday, Bug!

Audrey is five years old.  She turned five four days ago.  A whole hand.  I remember how excited I was when I was "a whole hand".  It's a big deal!  I had a great post in mind Tuesday morning, the morning after our small family "celebration", but of course life happened, and now it's somewhere buried in my mind.  It's fine though, that's just life.

Audrey.  My shy, hesitant, careful daughter, who still manages to be brave and adventurous.  I'm still sorting that out myself, so don't worry if you're a bit confused.  Audrey.  The girl who we joke exists only because I fell climbing and broke my leg, and 9 months later, she arrived.  The girl who has been counting down the days until she turned five so she could rock climb at our gym.

Over the weekend, her wonderful (and now local!) Aunt Jenn gave her a purple climbing harness and a hand-knitted chalk bag, pink with an orange flower.  Apparently Audrey's teachers were a tad puzzled Monday morning when Audrey announced that her favorite birthday present was a harness.  A harness?  I can only imagine the teachers' quizzical looks as they tried to sort it out in their heads while still being age-appropriate with my blondie standing there, excitedly looking up at them.  Monday evening, guess what we did!?!?  We went climbing, as a family.  Audrey was brave, and did a great job for her first time climbing on rope.  She "needed" her chalk bag on her harness just like we had ours, even though she had no idea really what it was for.  But she knew it was cool, or fun, so she wanted it.  I love that attitude, the "I don't really know what I'm getting into, but I bet ya it's going to be great! " attitude.  We should all have a pinch more of that enthusiasm in our lives.

Audrey, the girl who barely outweighs the auto-belay counterweight with her 40.5 pounds.  We had to attach a tether onto her harness (see the green strap hanging down from her?) so we could PULL her DOWN when she was ready.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Given her mass and gravitational acceleration of 9.8m/s/s, I think it would have taken her about 5 minutes to float down to the ground.

Audrey, my thoughtful, gentle girl.  The girl who washes her hands after eating peanut M&M's because James is allergic to peanuts.  The girl who saves the last piece of candy for HOURS to share with someone who isn't there.  The girl who so badly wants to have a playdate with her friends from PA.  The girl who still talks to her stuffed "aminals" and hopes they're quiet at night so she can sleep.  The girl who was sad her friend squished a spider at school, telling me "Mom, it was just a baby spider, it was so cute!"

Audrey, the girl who still wants a snuggle each morning, even though her long limbs no longer tuck in like they used to.  The girl whose heart breaks when someone tells her she's not doing something right and I can immediately see it in her big brown eyes, thus breaking my heart.

The girl who adores all-things-ballet, all things pink or sparkly, but is still willing to bang around in the bushes with the cobwebs, dead leaves and dirt.

"I have a lot of dreams in my head, so tonight I need to pick just one."
"Mom, did you know people all have different outsides, but the same insides?"
"Mom, I have a lot of words I need to say today."


I have friends with children the same age (to the day) as Audrey.  Over the last week, we've discussed the fact that our children are five years old.  Most of my friends felt sad, or at a loss, like they wanted to hold on to their children being "babies."  Not me!  I'm celebrating the fact that we made it five years.  Celebrating the amazing girl Audrey is and is becoming, full of curiosity, caring, and smiles.  Celebrating that she's healthy and able to do so many things, alone and with us.  Celebrating that we get to continue watching her grow and learn, and how lucky we are to have her.

Audrey, the girl I am thankful for every day.