My little girl turns 5!

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.