It's a little hard to know how to feel when your youngest child has just turned 5.
Wow, I even remember 5. I thought I knew everything then. Just as she will let you know she does now.
And that makes me realize how I think I feel.
Old.
I know, I know, the people whose own kid long since sailed past 5 don't have much sympathy for me. But I know they remember.
I'm amazed at how much life and energy I feel out of seeing a young face and more importantly a young mind that in these years is growing by leaps and bounds.
It was just about five years ago to this day that we were first out of the hospital after a bit of a stay in the neo-natal intensive care unit.
We came home weighing a little less than 10 pounds, barely able to do anything but cry and eat. Since then we've gone through an amazing metamorphosis in 262 weeks.
What first comes to mind? How about diapers, formula, Elmo, pacifiers, Dora the Explorer, onesies, Care Bears, diaper wipes, ballroom dancing in the living room, cold cereal, pullups, potty training, picking out letters here and there from books or signs, 3-year-old pre-k, daddy-daughter breakfast before pre-k, hiding lip gloss, wearing hair in pig tails, down, or half-up, half-down, dad trying to learn how to do the hair all those ways, alleged boyfriends, wearing white tights with black boots, pushing the grocery cart together while we shop, laughing it up with big sister and big brother, playing soccer with new friends and the joy of her reading a book all by herself without me saying a word.
We even had some Halloween fun this year. Sometimes the holiday gets a little overshadowed because of having a birthday just a few days before, but this year we princessed it up with a Cinderella crown her mom found and a baby blue dress and top. We still went with white tennis shoes since the dress shoes I found in the closet were too small. Yep, someone's growing too fast.
We had a good time, coming home with 5,000 pounds of candy and newfound focus for the importance of brushing teeth.
She spent her birthday out of town at her grandmother's in Georgia. They had a birthday party the night before her birthday, but she refused to admit she was 5 the next day until "we eat cake and open presents on my real birthday. Yesterday was just practice," she informed everyone.
She did get some cake and has officially become 5 now in her own mind, even if it kept me feeling younger for a few hours that she was still 4.
As if the whole princess thing weren't solidly entrenched, she's even a model now, making her debut in this month's edition of Silk Magazine, a publication put out by The Transcript for a little more than a year. I'm sure she would be happy to autograph a copy for you.
She's still my baby, but she sure isn't a baby anymore.
And instead of her age making me feel old, I think it's making me feel younger and younger everyday.
And for a guy who hasn't always done a lot of things right, I'm as blessed as a guy can be.
Read more about Christian's interesting experiences as a father in his blog, "Go Ask Your Father" at www.normantranscript.net/connected.
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The mother daughter trip of a lifetime
