Dear my sweetest E,

Happy 5th Birthday to the girl who makes me smile with my whole face and laugh with my whole body! You are the ultimate gift, my hilarious lil spitfire, and I’m so lucky that you’re mine. It’s unfathomable that five years have gone by so quickly, and you’ve grown and morphed into this person who I couldn’t be more proud of and more excited to know. You surprise me and delight me (and frustrate me) to my limits, but that’s how I know you’re mine because I see myself in you and I see all the ways you’re not like me too. It’s all these other ways that I’m so grateful for. Because that’s the best part of this parenting business…finding out who you are gonna be regardless of my influence, all the ways you’re not like me. The way you’re obsessed with horses to the way you take charge of a situation and speak your mind. Never stop doing that.

You deserve the absolute best birthdays and I hope this one didn’t disappoint. Shoot, it might be the first one you remember. Realizing that just gave me a mini heart attack. I think it went pretty well though. From the balloons to the pancakes to the trip to the museum and the butterfly grove, and then the chocolate cupcakes with our friends, and of course, THE PRESENTS, and more cupcakes and ice cream, I’d say, you enjoyed yourself. And don’t forget my favorite part, dancing and twirling just the two of us in the kitchen. I’m not sure if you were aware, but I was committing it to memory, the feel of your hand in mine, the way you laughed, the ease of the moment.

You’re 5 now. I’m almost 35. There might as well be a million years between us, yet you remind me of what it’s like to be thirty years younger every time I look at your marvelous face. Happy Birthday to you, Miss E! We love you like crazy!