The Final Birthday of the Fall Birthday Season

We like to group our birthdays together in this family. Spring brings us first CG, and then a weekish later is Marquis. Then in the fall within a month we have Princess, me and Sweetheart. What can I say? We are a cuddly family, we like to hang out together.

Today my wonderful Sweetheart is six years old. I am still amazed that six whole years have gone by since this girl came into my life. And this picture describes exactly what it is like to live with our beautiful Sweetheart.

Sweetheart expresses her emotions very strongly. When she is happy, which is most of the time, she shows off her beautiful ear-to-ear smile. She smiles so wide that she can't keep her eyes open (a trait inherited from me and my side of the family) and the smile is usually accompanied by hops and jumps of joy. Likewise, when she is sad, everyone knows it. Her emotional sobs can be heard throughout the entire house, and she isn't satisfied until she has had a chance to tell her story and hug it out. 

She has a lot of artistic flair. During the particular dinner above, she took her salad and carefully arranged it around her sandwich, the whole time saying things like, "Doesn't my plate look just delightful? I'm creating the most amazing dish!" With each bite she would rearrange the lettuce to make it look just as amazing. 

Sweetheart talks with her entire body. As she is telling you a story, if the person in the story is walking, she will walk in place. If they are cooking, she will move her hands around as if cooking a delicious meal. I just love talking to this girl to see what she will do.

Her imagination is still tremendously larger than life. The finger people still show up quite often, along with a parade of imaginary people, animals and things. I'm very used to being handed something imaginary that I need to keep safe or eat or tell her it is amazingly beautiful. 

This girl is so very grown up. She is doing so many big girl things like going to school, riding the bus to get there, and helping me out with anything and everything. I am so proud of how much she is learning and just how grown up she is getting.

I am so blessed to be able to watch this girl grown and learn and change day by day. The meaning of her real name actually is Sweetheart, and we named her well. I am truly one very lucky mom to have her in my life!