FIVE

Five is a mile marker.  I remember feeling this way when Sister turned five, and now I feel the same as I reflect over your childhood.  Not that you aren't a kid anymore, but you are a bigger, school-aged kid now.  Maybe because all of your siblings' birthdays happen at the end of the school-year, 5 seems like a more significant marker to me.  Either way, I can see it in the way your body has grown taller and your face less boyish.  I can see it in your independence and confidence.  I can see it when you interact with other people outside our family.

So much has changed in this last year.  You have grown just as eager as Songbird to do "school."  You love to listen to good stories, to paint and create beautiful pictures.  You are learning to read short sentences and small books.  You love understanding how things work.  This morning you looked up at the ceiling and asked if the upstairs was above our heads.  I said, "Yes, of course!"  Then you walked all around the downstairs trying to figure out where each room above us was.  You weren't satisfied until you had the whole floor plan completely mapped out.  That's how you are - you love figuring things out and knowing them well.

When I decided to send you to Masters Academy with sister this past Fall, I wasn't sure you were ready.  Every time I dropped you off we had this ritual of you clinging to me, me gently pushing you away, you running back after me (with a big smile on your face).  Then one day I was really sick and could barely get out of the car to walk you in.  I said you were going to have to be brave, and you looked at me and gave me a kiss and a hug, and walked to your class.  And that was it.  Now you run down the hall ahead of me and go to your class on your own, and your teachers marvel at how much you can remember, and how "ready" you are for school (you smile at this, too).

You love learning, you adore both of your sisters, you love swords and bows and arrows, knights and Indians, and you want to have things exactly right when you play dress-up and pretend.  This can be hurtful to others around you sometimes, and we are working on accepting gifts and love from others when they are not just the way you want them to be.

I feel like recently I've seen a sweet softening of your heart, and I was even blessed to overhear you tell Aida you wanted to be baptized on Easter Sunday.  You haven't talked to us about this yet (and Easter is already past), but I'm praying that the Lord would give you eyes to see His love for you and his people.  

For your birthday you wanted a cake that really looked like a castle.  I found these awesome grey pebble chocolates that we used for the walls.  Aside from finding the oven turned up to 500 degrees and burning 1/4 of the cake, the part we salvaged actually turned out tasting alright.  I'm considering a second career in cake decorating :)  It was such a mess I just gave it to you and let you do what you wanted with it (and you were very enthusiastic about the decorating).

For your party you wanted the Maphets, and bows and arrows, so Papa did some research and came up with a good plan.  After making bows and arrows, you had a tournament of sorts - seeing who could shoot the furthest, who could shoot on target, and who could balance over the fire pit.  It was a lot of fun, and we were surprised how engaging it was.