Liv turns 5

 

How is this possible?

In the wee hours of a Saturday morning 5 years ago Liv slipped into the world and before I could even see her, they were cleaning her off and cutting her cord and I asked the nurse standing beside me if she was OK.

"She's perfect." the nurse whispered with a smile.

I'd birthed her brother 4 years earlier in the same month and I couldn't bear the thought that something could go wrong even after successfully making it 37 weeks.  Those 2 words sunk deep into my spirit and probably for the first time since 2012 I let myself breathe one of those deep soul breaths...the kind that release all the tension you hold in your neck and shoulders.  She was here.  We made it.  And she was perfect.

Fast forward 5 years and I asked my dear friend, Toni, to try and capture that tenacity that brought her safely to us in the first place.  Capture her spunk and sass, her beauty and mischief, her riotous curls and her laughing eyes.  And I am once again breathless.  Obviously I'm aware that my child is gorgeous but Ken and I were stunned into silence during her photo shoot...we were not aware of really how much trouble we are in for.

Liv is entering Kindergarten this Fall and we are thrilled that we were able to enroll her in a private, Christian school.  All of the public schools here are half day kindergarten and most of the all day programs have long wait lists.  I was thrilled to learn my annoying habit of scheduling registration reminders in my calendar paid off and we beat the wait list for her class.  I worry about her ability to stay awake all day 5 days a week because she doesn't listen very well when we tell her 8pm is bedtime but I suppose she could end up learning the hard way.  Getting her in school all day will let Ken work more and truly she loves being out and about like I do over staying home with Homebody Daddy.

She is still really into Frozen, Disney songs, The PJ Masks and Little Einsteins and I make her watch Bluey with me when she asks me to watch with her. She doesn't sit very well and is often found running, jumping and dancing around the house.  She hums and sings in the car, starts tickle wars with her father (that she always loses) and loves to shop and run errands with mom.  

Her kitten Rajah sleeps with her and Liv can feed her and let her in and out of the sliding glass doors to the backyard.  She loves to water plants and is looking forward to helping me in the garden this summer.  We bake and cook together, have play dates with our besties Hadley and Nixon and will likely spend all summer swimming and playing outside.

Some of her highlights from my journals this last year:

• calling Hand Sanitizer: hanzitizer
• "the smoke alarms only go off when mom is cooking"
• she calls the Glade bathroom spray (Macintosh scent) "poop apples"
• She told me pelicans should have candy in their big beaks instead of fish (she's not wrong)
• M&M's are pronounced emmyems, The Bearenstein Bears are pronounced bearsy-bears and the word animals is pronounced amamals
• "Mom...Jesus lives in my heart...and so do fairies."

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