My baby is officially not a baby anymore. On June 8th, she turned 5, signifying the end of the “formative” years; the years when it’s pretty much up to us to ensure her proper development. Now it’s time to send her off into the brave new world to fend for herself.
Okay, well, maybe I’m being a little over dramatic. I know, right? You never would have expected that from me.
Nevertheless, it did dawn on me recently that I kind of had my shot. I mean, sure, I get to lead and guide and direct for many years to come…. but any tiny amount of control I may have had over any piece of a blank slate is probably gone. Although, as time goes on, I’m realizing that the “blank slate” theory just doesn’t carry much water.
Nope. Mylie was Mylie from the time she was born. She’s a quick learner and a perfectionist. She is horrible at auditory learning but great at tactile. She’s bossy and a born dancer (which makes her perfect material to be a choreographer, which she also loves to do). She has a small speech impediment (still has trouble with those pesky ‘R’s) but she has no idea that she does.
She is social and caring, and absolutely loves to talk. When she can’t talk, she has discovered the new-found joy of note-writing. Both Nick and I receive about a dozen notes a day, and she has been reprimanded in preschool and Sunday School for passing notes. She reads at an exceptionally high level, and even I’m not exactly sure how or when that happened. I know I can’t take credit for it.
She’s a perfectionist and will often get frustrated (and sometimes quit) when she can’t do things right on the first attempt. But she is learning what a difference practicing can make. She has no fear of being in front of crowds, but gets a little shy in front of smaller, intimate groups.
She is 99.99% her father’s daughter…. they are like two peas in a pod. Which, unfortunately, tends to cause them to butt heads on occasion. She is not a girly-girl at all, but does love anything pink. She doesn’t particularly like to play with dolls, but she LOVES to mother Nolan. Fortunately, she does a pretty good job of that most of the time. Despite sibling spats that pop up frequently, the two of them get along wonderfully, and are the best of friends.
I don’t know if I did anything right in these first five years as her mom. I know for sure I’ve done an awful lot of things wrong. But we’re learning and growing together, and even though these formative years are over now, I look forward to the next thirteen even more (and many after that, of course), when I can let her take more of the reigns as I step back into the role of leader and guide. One thing I know for sure, my life wouldn’t be the same without her!
- 2005 – Mylie at Birth
- 2006 – Mylie, Age 1
- 2007 – Mylie, Age 2
- 2008 – Mylie, Age 3
- 2009 – Mylie, Age 4
- 2010 – Mylie, Age 5
After seeing the changing of the guard, we had to hustle back to the train station to collect our luggage and then zoom over to the metro to take the hour-long Tube ride to the airport. We sweated bullets worrying that we wouldn’t make it in time, but somehow we managed to get there just as boarding was starting. Perfect! We had to wait to take off because the Ash Cloud was forcing all air traffic onto one runway, and then we had to head out to the east, and skirt around the volcano to the north. It felt like we were being chased out by ash, kind of like Jeff Goldblum and the T-Rex on Jurassic Park. But we made it, and have LOTS of chocolate to show for it. We had a great time seeing what few sights we got to see, but generally had the best time just hanging out with our friends in Belgium, getting a true (albeit small) taste of what life is like over there. One thing is for sure, we got the travel bug, and hope to be doing much more of it in the future!
