Today my baby girl turns 5.
FIVE!
I can’t believe it was only 5 years ago that you burst into
our world, Mia! That Toby instantly
became a BIG (mature!) brother, that Rob became a daddy to his little sidekick and
that I met you, “my” girl.
I said in that very first post (where I confessed that I had
actually really WANTED a girl…DESPERATELY) that your name “Mia” was fitting
because in Italian it means “Mine.”
What a crazy thing to say about your child. Sure, they are “yours”, but no one owns
anything, and if there is ANYTHING in this WORLD I wish to impart to you, my
strong spirited, independent child, it is that NO one owns you. You are your own person, paving your own way
in life, learning from your own mistake and independently making and achieving
your own dreams.
And from what I know of you already, Mia, you are doing
nothing short of just that.
There is SO MUCH you have done this year- you’ve mastered
swimming without a lifejacket, skiing independently, reading, writing, playing hockey and even the
routine of JK. You take it all in stride
and approach all these new challenges with confidence , optimism and your
quirky sense of humour.
You are certainly your own unique person who is quickly
carving their own place in this world and our family.
For example – our family (Daddy, Toby and I…heck, we can
even throw in Grandma Lynda to boot – sorry mom) has not one iota of a creative
bone between the lot of us. But you love
nothing more than to do art. You draw,
create, craft, glue, cut, invent and paint whenever you get the chance. In fact, some Fridays when your poor little
body and spirit is all worn out from a full week of JK and it takes every last
bit of strength for you to walk from the bus to the house, if I lay out some
sort of craft for you to do, you will reenergize in silence as you work away,
and I can see the passion and spark for life reignite through your creative
spirit.
You tell me regularly, “I am going to be an Artist, Mom. You know why? Because I am VERY talented and I am a VERY good at art AND I LOVE to draw and paint.”
(I have no doubt you will be a very modest one, as well.)
One of my favourite moments of this year came around
Halloween. It had been a particularly
long and challenging week for you and I decided that I should pre-emptively
plan on having some sort of craft ready for you this particular Friday when you
got home. I managed to find a bunch of
small white pumpkins at the grocery story and laid them on the counter. When you and Toby got home I told you to both
go downstairs to the craft cupboard and pick out whatever items you would like
to use to decorate your own pumpkins.
Toby emerged immediately carrying 2 makers : a black one and an orange one.
You took your time. I
was almost about to come down stairs and check on you when I heard your
determined steps coming up the basement stairs.
I could tell by the fact that you were taking each step one at a time
that you were carrying QUITE the load.
Sure enough ,you were. You
emerged from the basement with a bucket of markers, glue, felt, glitter
sticks, Halloween stickers, tissue paper
bits and scissors.
What on EARTH were you going to DO with all of that?!??! I
nearly asked but stopped myself as I remembered your fragile end of the week
self. I kept my mouth shut and opted
instead to merely observe the masterpiece you were about to create.
After 3 minutes Toby’s project was complete. He only ended up needing to use one of his
two markers; he painted his white pumpkin orange and declared the job done.
You, my dear, took your sweet time. In complete silence, with your messy hair often
dangling in the glue and a serious look of intense contemplation on your face you
coloured, glued, cut, pressed, admired and ended up creating a pumpkin
masterpiece. When you were finally done
you showed me what you had made : your white pumpkin was elaborately coloured (in
non-traditional pumpkin colours, I might ad) and adorned with stickers and a
felt cape which matched the “quilt” and “pillow you also made for it which was a
patchwork of tissue paper scraps glued into what must have been a very
meaningful pattern onto a large and
small piece of felt.
You carried this pumpkin and its lovingly made quilt and
pillow around with you for months after Halloween ended.
Toby ended up using his orange pumpkin as a soccer ball
later that very same day.
The other thing that defines you, Mia, is the mature,
somewhat bossy, but exceptionally loving way in which you are a mother to your
“babies”. Adventure girl, Horsalina,
Natasha and Baby Joseph are among your lucky kin and you take your
responsibilities as their parent VERY seriously. Every morning you are the first one awake at
some ungodly hour that comes before 7.
(I don’t even ask anymore). While
the rest of us sleep away, you thoughtfully get your children up, dressed, fed
and ready for the day, chatting and singing all the while to them in your carefree, happy
morning way. By the time the clock turns
7 and you have our blessing to come wake us up, you always enter voice first,
recounting some humorous tale of the previous hour about how baby Joseph took his
first steps, or how Adventure girl was up all night with a fever and you had to
tend to her.
You want to be an
artist when you grow up but your other deep rooted passion is
that of motherhood. I also know that you
will excel at both.
And although your confident, independent approach to the
world has me feeling guilty that I hastily and improperly labelled you as
“mine”, I have to say, that of all the pleasures you have bestowed on me this
year- - watching you flourish, mother and create, the thing that still makes me
smile the most is the knowledge that for now, even though you are 5 going on
15, you’re our little Mia. We couldn’t
have asked for anyone better.
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