Her Birthday in Days of My Destiny

M had a WONDERFUL birthday. She was so happy all day. We surprised her and picked up her best friend on our way to Tamworth for our big day out. Of course we had to put a spare car seat in our car, and so to keep our surprise a secret, we simply told her we had to take the seat to Tamworth to be looked at. She bought it. I filmed her when we picked up her best friend - her reaction was just so so so cute and beautiful!!!!! So we spent the day with an extra child in our family, and wow, M and her best friend did.not.stop.talking.all.day. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. We went to KidzZone, an indoor playground type of place, and spent about two and a half hours there. The girls had so much fun, running, climbing, jumping, sliding, etc. At one point they were in a pool full of colourful plastic balls and I caught them sneaking two balls down their shirts for boobs, LMAO. So so so funny! They got all sweaty and it was such a hot day, so afterwards we went to the swimming pool. The best friend had her swimmers ready, as I had warned the mother that this may happen. We spent about an hour at the pool. The girls all splashed L and he splashed them back. He played heaps with them while I took a lot of photos. There are many many beautiful photos of the day. Such special memories! For her birthday, from us, she got 3 new dresses (she has outgrown all her dresses so two are around-the-house type of dresses and one is a nice going out one), a lip balm, a special "lip balm case" that I sewed on the sewing machine and a doll. The doll is the one she didn't want in her cake, lol. She got birthday cards from grandma and grandad and Aunty S, and Aunties C&L. She got a phonecall from grandma and grandad, Aunty A & my parents. She was just really happy.

Her birthday celebration was ... different, for me, at least. It was the first birthday in her short little life that I wasn't the main one celebrating with her. She was all about her friends, and it was obviously inappropriate for me to stand there and enthusiastically comment on the pretty wrapping paper, for example. She's beyond that, developmentally. I sort of took a back seat, really. She played with her friends for the duration of the party. Of course she got slightly bossy at one point, and I reminded her a few times to be nice, but I also knew that she'd been up since 5am (of all days, we were down to one car so we had to drop L off at work), so I was more forgiving, too. She got heaps of presents, all of them pretty cool. A few parents dropped their kids off and left. I know that some of them had things to do, but others didn't and I thought it was slightly rude.... I guess in their books, they're comfortable for their child of this age to be left alone... but I don't know... I hadn't thought about when I would stop attending parties along with my child. It just felt strange, especially as I actually know these women and in my eyes, it might have been a nice time to catch up briefly before Christmas and so on. Oh well, it is what it is.

M has not stopped playing with all her new toys. Today she woke up and said it's not her birthday anymore but she's still 6. Lol so cute. I can really see in her that she really FEELS older, or more mature, or something, it's showing in the way she is behaving today.

She gave me a little envelope with a note inside. It reads: "Dear mum love M. Thank you for the lovely presents you gave me yesterday xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox (and then two love hearts) Love M."

When she gave that to me, my heart completely melted and I had tears in my eyes as I quietly hugged her and said, "You're welcome."

My girl is growing up.

L and I were discussing this whole thing last night. The thing is, her turning 6 feels like WAY more of a milestone than her turning 5 was. Turning 5, well, we knew she was growing up, but she was still very similar to who she'd always been. Whereas this year, she's become so much more of a KID, rather than a Little Girl. The way she expresses herself, the way she carries herself, her sense of understanding and sense of humour.... SO SO MUCH has changed this year. Obviously most of it is because she started school. I've seen how outside influences have had an effect on her, both for good and bad. In any case, she is certainly a very different person than she was this time last year. In previous years, she's developed so much more physically than anything else, whereas this year... .she's developed so much more physically, socially AND mentally all in one go, BAM! So seeing her turn 6..... has been a real spin-out for the both of us. Besides, turning 6, it's like.... it's the beginning of the next part of childhood. It's the beginning of this next half-decade of her life. It's the beginning of her ever-growing self-awareness and how she truly relates to this world. I can see that she wants to make a difference in some way. A kind note, a kind action.... sure, she tests the limits, but what child doesn't? She's becoming so much more autonomous in all areas of her life......... so much more than any other year. I am happy for her, truly happy for her. For me, well, I'm happy that she's growing up HEALTHILY, and I simply remind myself that I was never ever meant to keep her forever. I was never ever meant to have a small baby and nothing else. I was never ever meant to hold her all for myself. Instead, I have to prepare her for the world, and well.... these next five years will be so different to the first five years. Preparing her for the world will take on a whole new meaning. It will mean different things to what I've known it to be up until now.

The cutest part of the whole day was after we dropped her best friend back home and we said our goodbyes and were driving home, M said to us, "Oh no! We didn't take the spare car seat to the mechanics to get looked at!"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Oh, the cuteness! We had to explain to her that actually that was a little lie we had to tell her in order to keep our surprise a surprise! I apologised all the same for the little lie, but she understood.

Happy 6th birthday, my beautiful, beautiful, girl.