Tomorrow's the Big Day...

Well... the day is almost here!  Tomorrow, our little girl starts Kindergarten!  Everyone tells you that the time will fly by... and it's hard to imagine when you bring home your little bundle of joy and the sleep deprivation that follows and almost drives you insane... that one day you will look back and say ... "Holy CRAP... where did that time go?"  It's true.  Cliche, but true.  Time goes faster than you can imagine....

Here she is... the day she came into the world...

What was she so angry about?  She wasn't the one who just endured childbirth without an epidural?  I know it's cold out here and everything... but still.  I was likely being stitched up (since that lasted longer than I pushed!) when this picture was taken! Honestly though, she was such a good baby.  A complete angel. She slept through the night by 8 weeks of age.  12 hours through the night. 

Luke STILL gets up for a bottle in the middle of the night.  Yes, I know he doesn't need it.  But, he goes right back to sleep afterwards if we give it to him.  Points for laziness, yes.  Points for good parenting, no. Whatever.  I did a GREAT job the first time around.  Can't expect perfection twice....  ;-)

She really was SUCH an easy baby... look at that angel face...

And she was HAPPY!!!!  Happy to play... happy to do whatever. Very easy-going girl...

She has always had these eyes that just peer into your soul... and your steal your heart.  

I can't believe she's five. Five and a half she will tell you. And, she's off to school! The transition really shouldn't be that hard for her. She has been in preschool for two years... and she did daycare a couple days a week before that.  She is used to being in a classroom, being with other kids, being away from home... or from Nana and Papa's. I'm glad we did that.  She seems really well prepared.  

This past summer, she participated in Y Camp.  It was a GREAT experience for her.  She did SO MANY fabulous things. Experienced so many things that we haven't been able to do with her yet. She went to absolutely every park in a 20 mile radius. She went to a few different water parks and amusement parks. She rode a horse a couple times.  She went to science centers and planetariums, the movies and the theater (The Jackson Shakespeare Theater actually did a performance for the campers!) and she loved every minute of it.  

She's not exactly that easy going angel baby anymore.  No. We have had our VERY tough times... but I will say this.  She seems to be getting better.  Or maybe we are learning to be better parents with the help we have had to seek out.  Either way... it seems as if things are on the upswing and hopefully, for a while... we can have that angel back...

However long this good period lasts... we will take it... and we look forward to the happy times.  The bad times... yeah, they're tough... but we work through them the best we can... and it seems as though we always have that light at the end of the tunnel.  We're not afraid to admit we can't do it alone.  We're not afraid to say this is hard as hell... and we know we are not perfect.  Parenting is tough... and frankly not always fun... but the world just wouldn't be as good a place without this crazy girl in it and she's worth all the pain and tears because the amount of joy she gives is more than you can account for....

Happy Kindergarten little one.... we've loved watching you grow from the baby you were to the little girl you still are... and always will be... to us...