From Preschooler to Big Kid: Happy 5th Birthday to The Boy

My not-so-little boy turned five today.

FIVE.

Five years ago I was wondering what the HELL I was doing... who's great idea this whole 'baby' thing was and how the HELL I was going to get that baby OUT of there! (Still boggles the mind if you ask me.)

Five years later, I'm still wondering what the hell I'm doing. Funny how that never changes. Sure I can (and have) change a diaper with my eyes closed, wipe someone else's bum without blinking an eye, and I now know the best way to handle minor boo-boos that seem pretty major at the time (in a word: freezies).

But since every new day with The Boy is a stage we've never experienced, he gets to teach us how to parent in the moment, as we go. Isn't he lucky!

We don't yet know how to handle 'big school', or girlfriends, or broken bones (KNOCKING ON WOOD). We haven't put him on a bus by himself or helped him put together a project on Nefertiti or the Human Body. We have yet to send him careening down the street on a two-wheeler without training wheels, or deal with him running away or telling us he hates us (again, knocking on wood, though I know these things are probably coming). We haven't had to explain where babies come from or why pets have to die, or teach him to cross the bunny ears and loop-swoop-and-pull.

We'll learn all those things and more, I know. But we're not there yet... for now it's all band-aids on scrapes and time-outs and LEGO and three books at bedtime and the excitement of a playdate with your best friend.

Happy 5th Birthday little buddy. Love you.

1 year

1 week

2 years

3 years

4 years

Five!