After considerable buildup, Julia turned five today – a milestone which she happily and shyly announced to everyone she could. Beyond an evil lingering cough, the actual birthday featured a wonderful picnic lunch with Genevieve, Shannon, and me at campus, lots of bike riding (before lunch and before dinner), making a new friend at the playground, a dinner of her choice, cake and ice cream, quite a few presents (including a Disney Princess tiara which went right onto her head), and then nearly an hour of playing baseball and rolling down the hill in the backyard.
As I pitched the oversized white plastic baseball toward the oversized red plastic bat in Julia’s hands, I couldn’t help but think – predictably, sentimentally – about how she has grown up. Here’s photographic proof: a few pictures of her (and the rest of us) on (or near) all five of her birthdays.
How wonderfully sweet! Before you know it, she’ll be biking off to 4th grade, the pool, middle school, soccer practice, high school, and beyond.
My baby (youngest of three, and seven years younger than his closest sibling) finishes 3rd grade tomorrow. He’ll turn 10 this year. How do these things happen? I still remember the almost-nothing weight of the newborn him, swaddled in a baby blanket. And yet every new stage is interesting and pretty wonderful – I guess that’s how we bear leaving the younger ages behind. Congratulations to Julia, and to you and Shannon on five years of parenthood!