Friday, April 3, 2009

Addie at 5

Here's a snapshot of Addie, as she turns five this next week:

She can read whole chapter books all by herself.  Her favorite ones are about fairies, of the Tinkerbell variety.  "Mama," she whispers as she crawls into bed with me in the morning, "when we go to Disneyland someday, we will have to be very quiet.  We will hear the tinkling of the bells and that will tell us how to get to Pixie Hollow.  Okay?"

Though the front of her shirts are no longer covered in drool, she still has a perenially runny, crusty nose and sounds always plugged up.  She can't close her mouth when she chews.  It's like having a baby ox at the dinner table.  And, she is fidgety like nobody's business.  I'd love to have a time-lapse video of her during a meal.  It would be like watching a waffle dervish.  Waffle dervish baby ox.

She is taken with all things nature.  We have seedlings growing in our bay window, and she follows their daily progress closely.  One of her favorite things is to go in the backyard and look for "signs of spring."  I'm constantly being dragged out of the house to observe the new buds on trees, or some black beetle crawling across the pavement.

Addie is quick to cry.  Her feelings are tender, and she is still very much a spirited child.  An itchy tag on her shirt and she's a puddle of sobs pounding at the floor.  She is also incredibly creative, and can make a sculpture or painting out of almost anything.  She loves music.  She loves her family, and talks incessantly about her grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, cousins, and friends.

She is incredibly tall and thin, and when she's sitting in the bath at night, her cheeks pink from the steam and her lips huge and red, her eyes big in her thin face, she absolutely takes my breath away with her beauty.

She's taken to sleep-walking at night, which usually involves coming into our room and heading for the stalk of library books, all shaky and unconscious, wanting to read even in her sleep.  Every so often she wakes in the middle of the night with horrible croup and cannot breathe.  Or terrified from a nightmare in which a pig has been nibbling on her toes.  I remember her as a baby, then, those nights of nursing her and staring into each other's eyes, discovering each other.  She's very much on her own path now, but I hold on anyway.

You add fire and excitement to our lives, my sweet Addie, and my heart is filled to bursting with love for you.  We are so proud of you, so amazed by everything you are and are becoming.  Happy 5th Birthday, our sweet girl.



4 comments:

  1. Nice reflection(s). I am really glad to be friends with you and your fam.

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  2. oh this made my heart smile...what an amazing girl Addie is. And what a reader! I am still amazed by her apprehension of language at such a young age. Happy Birthday, Adeline! Your aunties on Vine Street love you mucho.

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  3. Looks like you were blessed with the best of genes from all sides of your family and given parents who really see you. May you continue to be stimulated and thrilled by the widening world. Love, Gammy

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  4. You go girl. Addie you are indeed a very cool young lady. Quin wants your number

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