Dear Mimi,
Today you are five years old. Five. One whole hand, you like to say.
In the blink of an eye, you have gone from a sweet, good-natured baby to a cuddly and precocious toddler to an inquisitive and headstrong preschooler to an increasingly adventurous — and independent — almost-kindergartner about to lose her first tooth.
Five is a funny age. Sometimes it feels like you are five-going-on-fifteen, with your sassy attitude and almost preternatural awareness of the world around you. And then you suddenly turn into my little cuddlebug again, calling me “Mama” and asking for our special nighttime Eskimo kiss-and-smooch routine.
Can I let you in on a little secret? Since I didn’t grow up with any brothers, I didn’t know what to expect when Buddy when he was a little boy. So with him, every phase, every new interest was something new to me.
But with you, I always thought I’d have the inside scoop, having been a little girl myself once upon a time. I thought I’d naturally relate to you, that I’d see myself in you. And sometimes I do, especially when it comes to your imagination and creativity and dramatic flair (and love of Star Wars).
Yet we’re different, you and I, and although we love each other just the same, you continue to surprise me in so many wonderful ways.
Like the way you simply love being outside (way much more than I ever did, and even more than your brother, I suspect), finding joy in riding your bike and doing cartwheels and coming home with muddy feet or wood chips in your shoes.
Or how you, my lover of all creatures big and small, are obsessed with collecting inchworms and caterpillars and hermit crabs in your plastic containers, watching them or taking care to move them to new locations.
Or how you prefer karate and gymnastics to dance and ballet.
Or how you love to build and create, whether it’s castles with your Legos and wooden blocks or drawing pictures of volcanoes with “hot lava”.
Or while your own bedroom has become increasingly untidy (ahh, now there’s something I can relate to!), you also love helping me organize my own admittedly messy closet (although I think it’s because it’s an excuse for you to prance around in my high heels).
Or how you believe anything is possible, from magical worlds to the idea that Mommy’s kisses can heal all boo-boos. And because of that, of the way you widen your blue eyes and insist that unicorns are real, you often make ME believe that anything is possible.
I remain in awe of you, my girl. Because you’ve shown me the world through a different lens, a different set of eyes. You’ve shown me that fairies can be pirates, that dresses and sneakers are a perfect match, that innocent Shirley Temple curls and a fiery stubborn streak can go hand-in-hand.
I cannot wait to see what the next year — with kindergarten, tooth fairy visits, new friends and experiences — has in store. And either way, I know you’ll approach it with the same spunk, the same kindness, and the same silly (and, yes, sometimes gross) sense of humor that you’ve shown over the last five years.
I love being your mom so much, and am so proud of the little girl you have become.
Happy birthday, my Mimi. As you often say, I love you to the moon and to Mars and to the sun and to ends of the earth.
XOXO
Mommy