How can my Sweet Baby Girl be Six Already?
Six already? How can my sweet baby girl be six already? No matter how often I try to grasp the sands of time a little tighter, be more determined to be more intentional, the days just keep running away with my heart.
I’ve started writing these birthday letters to my daughter. I email them to her at an email address that will hold various letters, memories, pictures until she’s an adult. I hope that it will be a precious gift to her someday.
Dear Sweet Girl,
You quietly turned six tonight as I kicked green and orange balloons into your room and wove streamers around your bed as you slept, made a curtain of crepe paper outside your door, hoping this so unPinteresty midnight effort is magical enough to delight you come morning.
I didn’t plan ahead very well because we’ve been traveling, and I’ve been in denial that you’re turning six already! I wish I could extend your precious five year-old days just a bit longer.
Not quite a baby, not quite yet grown, but six already? How time has flown! Click To TweetFive was a magical year to watch. Your imagination blossomed. I loved watching you twirl around the yard, a butterfly fairy princess one minute, and F5 tornado the next. You spent hours quietly creating mythical lands in our tree beds.
I am awed and moved by your heart for others. You were convicted by a sweet friend with cancer to share your hair with children who have lost theirs.
I was convicted by you.
So we are growing our hair together to donate to Wigs for Kids, and I admire you for not giving up even when your hair is painfully tangled or takes forever to dry. I’m confessing here that I may not make it. I’ve got at least 3-4 more inches and it’s driving me crazy!
At 5 my daughter decided to give her hair away, help us give a wig https://goo.gl/255Ejz Click To TweetI meant to make salt dough hand print ornaments while you were five, but my busyness kept me saying next week, until there were no weeks left and you were closer to six than five.
Five was the year you really started to read, devouring books and street signs in equal measure, the world offering up its printed secrets, including you in the literacy club.
Momma, does that say ‘body shop’? (you asked flying down the highway) Yes, yes, it does. What do they do in there? Wash your body? cuz that’d be weird.
You made up words like ‘fantacular’ and ‘hugantic’ and learned to count all the way to 100 without getting distracted at 67.
You lost three teeth! And cheered in the New Year for the first time at midnight.
You’ve tied your own shoes a few times now, but aren’t ready to toss the Velcro sneaks away. You LOVE jokes, but don’t quite understand how to tell them. But half the fun(ny) of your jokes now is just wondering what you’ll say.
You lost your first pets. It broke my heart to watch your mourn these tiny creatures, but I know that you’ll need to build faith and strength for larger losses as much as I wish I could shield you from them.
You are simultaneously so adult and still my baby, mindfully taking communion for the first time one day (You didn’t know to wait and popped the bread in your mouth. When I made you take it out, you said, but MOM, at the last supper, they ate the bread!) and the next believing your tongue is covered by taste bugs. Tonight, you told me that you only say pasketti to be facetious. Oh, the contradictions in your sweet little self.
Not quite my baby, not quite grown, but six already, how time has flown!
This letter has sat half-written for a week now because I can’t quite come to grips with how fast time has gone. I’m trying not to be sad, reminding myself of all the parents wishing they could watch their children grow up.
You feel it, too. Babydom is ending. You’ve asked for my help more often in the past two weeks than the past six months. Mommy, pick me up out of the tub. Carry me to bed. Let me sit in your lap.
And I say YES! because you’re six already . . .
and I’m already struggling under your weight. One day, too soon, I’ll start to scoop you off the couch to whisk you to bed, and won’t be able to lift you.
Needing my own nap yesterday after hours in the sun at the lake, I was so tempted to let you take your own bath, but I wasn’t ready for you to not need my hands in your hair, filling the bathroom with the scent of baby soap, giggling together over your slippery belly bubbles.
You won’t need me this way forever, or even very much longer.
This morning, you Spider Monkey leaped onto my lap, nuzzling my cheek, talking about the wonderful clock tower dream you’d been having. I sat stone-still absorbing your now sixness before you hummingbirded away. These sleepy snuggles are growing more infrequent and more treasured.
I’m doing my best to live in every moment, steep in the richness of your imagination while reality doesn’t dampen even the most outlandish fantasies (you’ve been half-lizard this week).
I may sometimes miss documenting events because I’m enjoying the moment with you, but I hope you know how deeply you are loved. I’m treasuring every step of yours towards adulthood and every second of your childhood.
I'm treasuring your every step towards adulthood and every second of your childhood. Click To TweetYou also love spending time with Daddy, doing daddy things with bugs and dogs and outside fun. Daddy is teaching you to fish and not be squeamish about hunting. You can almost pull back your own pink bow. And I’m glad, though those aren’t my things, because you have a dad that loves you who is sharing special time with you, building character and bravery into you in ways I cannot.
I can’t wait to see what adventures and lessons six has in store.
43 Comments
Mardene Carr
Before you know it they are out of the house and living their own lives. Take it from me! That is why it is important to make every moment count
Jennifer
We just watched the oldest graduate from high school. He was six when I met him. Hard to believe it’s been that long. Feels like I blinked.
Daisy Suman
What a beautiful post!! Congratulations and Happy Birthday to your little girl for turning 6… my son will soon turn 5 and I feel the same way. It’s amazing how time flies!
Jennifer
Thank you! Check out my related post about the Last Night you were 4!
Marisa
Beautiful and heartfelt post! This is such a great idea to write all these letters for your daughter to cherish some day. I wrote letters to both my son and daughter before they were born, and a couple of blog posts directed specifically for each of them as they were turning another year older. Like you, sometimes I just want time to stop. I hope she had a fabulous 6th birthday!
Jennifer
She really did! Thank you!
brianna george
I write letters to my kids too! Someday they will receive all of them. 🙂
Jennifer
It is a fun thing to do!
Faith
What a precious idea to write a letter to your daughter for the future.
Jennifer
Thank you. During a health crisis I wasn’t sure if I was going to be here for her and started writing letters, I think keeping up with them helps me have peace in case something did ever happen to me. I want her to know how deeply she is loved.
Pamela
What a precious post and a beautiful six year old! This letter will be so precious to her when she becomes a young mother herself. We need to celebrate our children with lasting memorials. I don’t think I’ve read a more poignant one.
Jennifer
Aw, thank you. Last year’s made me pretty weepy too! The last night you were four is the title and I always cry.
Allison Lancaster
So sweet! She is beautiful! Mine turns 5 months next week, it’s breaking my heart-time goes so fast!
Jennifer
Now is the perfect time to start these kinds of traditions! Make her an email address and start sending her loves!
Florence Ukpabi
I love this so, so much, what a lovely mummy you are and your little girl sounds so funny. I laughed out loud at the last supper bread bit 😀
Jennifer
She is hysterical! The things she says are always good for a laugh.
De Bolton
What a beautiful gift for both of you this letter. Thank you for sharing her magic through your eyes.
Jennifer
Aw, thank for stopping by!
Marie
What a gift for her when she is grown! She will love it! I miss my babies. Thank you for the smile and a look at your precious Princess
Jennifer
I hope she always has them. I should print them all out for her in a book too.
Andrea
beautiful – what a lovely way to honor your daughter
Jennifer
Thank you!
sue a allen
So precious! Enjoy every moment…they grow up fast!
Jennifer
I know it! But I still forget to say six when I say how old she is.
Marissa
What a lovely reflection on her fifth year – she is so blessed to have you as a mom, just as you are blessed to have the opportunity to call her daughter. thank you for sharing!
Jennifer
She is a blessing! And I’m doing my best.
Mihaela Echols
Oh my gosh!!! Happy Birthday to your sweet little girl! I love your idea of the emails for her! I also love how you wrote down your favorite memories of when she was five.
Jennifer
Thank you. These are the kinds of things I hope will help her feel connected with us as an adopted child as she grows up. I know I can’t eliminate all the holes she might feel from missing her biological family, but I’m doing my best
Caroline
How sweet! Happy birthday to your baby girl. I LOVE the hair donation idea – that is something I am so passionate about so thanks for doing that.
Jennifer
It amazes me that she came up with the idea on her own and is fierce about it. Makes me proud of her. It is such a small thing to do in a world full of suffering but something we can do right now and both learn lots of lessons about giving and God’s measure of our beauty.
Lisa Joy Thompson
This is so beautiful! I’m preparing to watch my 2nd child graduate from high school in just 2 short weeks and my oldest daughter turns 21 this summer! Treasure the moments…they fly by!
Jennifer
They sure do! Congratulations on your graduating baby!
Kay
Such a sweet post. I love the idea of writing the letters.
http://www.thedivinepresence.wordpress.com
Jennifer
Thank you!
Crystal
Jen what a great idea! I love that your daughter will one day open up her email and see all of these wonderful letters from you. Moms have such treasured, amazing memories.
Laura Mausolf
This is so sweet! I am sure your daughter will cherish those memories forever! What a great idea! Thanks for sharing at Family Joy Blog Link up!
Jennifer
I hope she always knows how much she is treasured!
Healing Mama
I love this letter. It’s so great that you are donating your hair, what a wonderful cause. She is going to cherish these as she gets older.
Jennifer
I read them to her now once or twice so she hears me celebrate her now and then save them. I think she will love these little peaks into her childhood each birthday.
Emily
What a beautiful letter to your daughter. Such a precious gift for her to keep with her always. You’ve made me want to start doing this for my boys. Happy Birthday to your sweet girl. Happy BIRTHday to you Mama!
Jennifer
Oh thank you! It is a fun thing to do.
Victoria Carrington
This is so beautiful!!
Jennifer
Oh thank you! It was so hard to write.