My baby turned FOUR!

 

I can hardly believe that on this day in 2012 I was holding such a tiny newborn bit of life in my arms.

 

Wondering how could ever be possible that she would one day be running circles around me, talking a mile a minute, and literally bouncing off the walls and furniture.

 

But here we are.

 

She’s been asking all week if it was her birthday.

 

And as if a birthday were some rite of passage to behavioral backsliding, Muffin got her very first “not so good” report from preschool today.  It was kind, it was vague, but the look of exhaustion in the delivery said it all.

 

Somewhere in the course of a few short hours this morning my daughter had managed to pop the magic fairy tale bubble that seems to surround her with new people.  She had become too familiar and let on that she is a handful.

 

Muffin said it was because they broke her birthday Hat. (Mommy fixed it.)

 

But guess what little handful couldn’t wait to get home and share her energy (and cupcakes) with her 92 year old next-door neighbor?

 

 

You guessed it!

 

She climbed up into his first lap to tell him some profound secret.  And was rewarded by that smile that covers an entire face.

 

Then, despite the cold and rain, our neighbor accepted an invitation to catch a ride from his open garage to ours.

 

And he settled into the love seat for a movie with Muffin.  And our dog and the new cat “Mew Mew” were allowed on the furniture for the special occasion. Muddy paws and all. <cringe>

 

It was the best picture that I never took.

 

And then it was into pajamas and off to Grandma and Granddaddy’s house for a beautifully decorated tree and ripping into presents and cupcakes with the cousins.

 

 

And as we talked on the drive home about listening to mommy and waiting to open presents, her little voice pipes up from the backseat, interrupting me, with something I credit her wonderful school for teaching her.  “I KNOW.  I didn’t do the RIGHT THING, Mommy!  But I CAN and I SHOULD next time.”

 

This is not something I could have imagined coming from the little person that I first met swaddled like a taco in a hospital receiving blanket.

 

This is so much more.

 

-RM