Five

She's five.  The birthday festivities (that we thought may never end) have ended...well, except for a little celebration with Ryan's family, so no, in fact the festivities have yet to end.  What five year old doesn't want day(s) spent in her honor to span over the course of an entire week?  I'll tell you one that does.  This girl.

Isabella is majorly into countdowns. Countdowns to her birthday party, to her actual birthday, countdowns to starting school, and now the big one...the countdown to the day she can switch her (NEW) earrings from her tiny pink studs to her fancy little pearls.  Problem is, she thinks that if I say six weeks, all she has to do is count to six and she's golden. She asks how many more sleeps she has before the event she is waiting for, is to occur. It's a tough concept, but she's pretty determined to figure it out. She loves marking days off of her ballerina calender that hangs in her bedroom.  We are always counting down.

On Saturday, we had Isabella's ballet party. She invited a few friends and family.  Ryan made a barre out of PVC that we spray painted (pink, of course) and the girls twirled and danced and had so much fun. 

Then they made butterfly cuffs and decorated fancy hair clips. Fanciness all around.

Quinn was all about the ballerina party. She loves to twirl...like, really loves to twirl.  And, ironically she was able to wear  the ballet leotard that Isabella just (as in 2 weeks ago) grew out of...

The morning after her party, Isabella found a tiny wrapped box on top of my dresser. She excitedly grabbed it and was eager to open the 'forgotten' present. I told her that she had to wait until her actual birthday to open it.  Back to that whole countdown thing....she was having trouble yet again.  She examined the box and quickly said "Oh! I know what this is! It's pearl earrings!"  I'm pretty sure she may be psychic. Either that, or she has x-ray vision. Because, in the box were pearl earrings from Kelly and Taylor. We were saving them until her birthday to have her open them and then we planned to tell her that her little five year old dream had come true, and she could get her ears pierced.  We jumped the gun a bit and let her open them and then told her that the next day, she was having a special mommy/daddy day and we were taking her to get her ears pierced.  Ecstatic is an understatement for how she felt.  Something else to look forward to. 

Isabella woke up early this morning, slipped into my bed and whispered, "mommy, it's my real birthday, we're going to get my ears pierced!" and then fell back to sleep for  couple more hours.  When she woke up she couldn't eat, drink, or think because she was too busy rushing us to get Declan and Quinn to mom's house so she could get her ears pierced!

She made some time for the traditional 'wake up and open presents.'

We made a few stops along the way, enjoying our time with our first born (and imagining what it would be like to have an only child...).  When we got to the mall, Isabella was a ball of energy and I was a ball of nerves.  She was confident, sure, and very excited.  Then the crusher. We found out that she couldn't use her pearl earrings to get her ears pierced (which I suspected) and she would have to pick out a style from what they had. She settled on a tiny pink stud and confidently sat up in her chair and held on tight.  After the first click of the peircing tool, she turned her head and said "OW!"  Then she smiled.  After the second click, I could see her lips purse and I know that look. She wanted to cry. But when she saw our faces and we told her how great her earrings looked, a smile spread across her face and she was just excited to see.  And excited was how she spent the remainder of the day. 

This would be the "I'm trying not to cry" face. Trust me, it didn't last long. Just about the time it took to take this picture.
On the way over to Charlottesville this morning, Ryan and I were talking about this day, five years ago, when Isabella was born. The longest labor, the unknown, the excitement, the beginning of all of this parenthood that is just second nature now.  We barely remember a time without her, without any of them.  Isabella was the one who jump started this journey that is so much a part of who we are now.  We are so incredibly proud of the amazing little girl that she is.  I can't believe it has been five years.