“Soon they’ll be too big to nicely fit on your shoulders…”

— Sincerely the Disney World commercial on Paramount+ that has apparently marked me as their target audience, shot, and scored.  If we didn’t have 1 million trips already planned this year, I’d probably be booking plane tickets right about now.  Yes, I’m a sucker, and yes, they’re marketing geniuses.

On the eve of my oldest’s babe’s fifth birthday, I’m struggling to wrap my head around the fact that somehow we are here.

5 feels big! Probably because 5 is big.  We can count to 11, write our own name, know what road we live on, draw pictures that actually look like what we want them to be…

Five means kindergarten in the fall.  Five is half a decade!

It’s a big number. It’s a big year… and it’s here.

Somehow, Reese Adaline Swann has been a part of our lives for 5 whole years, forever, and a day all at once.

So much of motherhood for me has been embracing each phase, knowing that it won’t last forever. However, this phase, I’d like to soak up.  It’s the phase where she still wants to hold my hand, be her daddy’s best friend, and mixes up the proper names for things.  It’s a phase where she says “wow, that is adooooorable,” and “you’re the best cooker ever, mom.”

There are a million reasons I have to be proud of this sweet girl and who she’s becoming.

She is curiosity encompassed, a walking contradiction of loving and sassy. 

She’s a leader. She makes us giggle endlessly. 

She pushes the limits, is an excellent negotiator, and is incredibly thoughtful. 

She is creative, has fallen in love with the art of drawing and writing love notes. 

She rarely forgets to say thank you. 

She gives the best hugs. 

She is a big helper and loves bigger.

Somehow we’ve blinked and this little girl that is surely made of equal parts magic, stardust, and fire is 5 years old.

This year has been a big one.  She’s taken on new challenges and change: swim lessons, skiing, preschool full-time to name a few.  All of which she’s done pretty much full speed ahead.  She knows how to be brave and that it’s okay to be fearful sometimes.  She makes us endlessly proud (a fact she never lets us forget to remind her of each bedtime).

Reese Adaline Swann, I am endlessly proud to be your mama, and I can’t wait to continue to see who you become <3

Now excuse me while I find an excuse to make sure she still fits nicely on my shoulders.  xoxo!

 

 

What a year.  She grew up right in front of our eyes!  Plus, I couldn’t help but share a few from her red, pink, dragon 5th birthday party.  Just you wait to fest your eyes on the special appearance by the one and only Toothless.

 

… our big 5 year old.