Nearly 5.

After taking pictures of Timmy, Birdie insisted on getting her picture taken. It took me several minutes to coax her into a natural smile; she's all about this ridiculous smile lately, but I love her real smile. I love seeing the gap in her bottom teeth from the tooth that never grew in. She is almost always happy unless her best friend at school won't play with her because if that's the case...watch out. This girl can give a mean stink eye. She has a school-girl crush on a boy named Liam. He's an adorable blonde-haired boy in her class that is perfectly respectful and helpful each day so I'll allow it. She drives me a bit crazy at school with her incessant pestering to move up to the best color (they use the dreaded color clip up/down chart), but I'm grateful that she is ever watchful and attentive to things I need help with in the classroom. She, following in the footsteps of her sisters, loves learning. We get home from school only to do more learning and reading each day. Some days it exhausts me, but I push through because I hate to discourage it. She is a quick learner. She's determined to learn how to tie shoes. She learned how to pump her legs on swings recently. She loves sticking her head out of the sunroof of the car. She almost always looks like a mess; her hair is constantly in her face. But she has the best smile, and it always shines no matter how much hair is covering her eyes.

I adore this little Bird. I love that she decides early in the day which name she wants people to call her, and she insists that people only use that name. She uses both Birdie and Felicity, although I think she uses Birdie more. I love that she loves me. She makes my world so happy.