goodbye five, hello six.

My Mya turns 6 today. It is hard to believe that it was just 6 years ago that I stuffed myself full of castor oil, onion rings, and Village Inn's chocolate pie in order to induce labor. It worked like a charm, and Mya came to us bright and early on a beautiful fall morning. She was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. I still love to flip through pictures of her first day of life and admire her warm brown skin and ruby red lips. She was a gift I never knew I asked for, and she still is.

Mya is growing up to be quite the inquisitive young lady. She wants to know everything there is to know about everything, and if you don't provide her with the answer she desires, she just makes one up that suits her fancy. Sometimes I'll flip questions around on her just to hear her response so I can laugh like, "Mya, why do you think mama's belly is so big?" Her reply, "Because mama, you eat too much, and the baby just loves treats." True, true enough. In the past week, she has told me she wants to be a princess, fire fighter, doctor and mom when she grows up. When I ask her why she wants to be a mom, she smiles, "Because I want to be like you." I must be doing something right. ;) She is always, and I mean always, honest when it comes to telling something like it is. We have come leaps and bounds from her 4-year old state when she would bluntly tell people they looked like frankenstein or they had too many tattoos, but we've worked on the whole tact thing, and like I said, she's a lot better. Whenever I see something questionable, I'll look over and see her brain bubbling with thoughts, and I shake my head, and she waits as patiently as possible to tell me that so-and-so shouldn't draw on themselves so much or that so-and-so shouldn't eat so many cookies. And on and on.

She is an excellent student. She has adopted my attitude about being on time to school, which is being on time really doesn't matter so long as you show up, and it makes me smile every time a teacher tells her to run to class, and I watch her just saunter up to the front door without a care in the world. That's my girl. She knows she's smart, and being 5 minutes late isn't going to change that. She just started riding the bus this week, and I wish you could see her bounce off the bus with a grin from ear to ear. She feels independent, and I'm encouraging it in every way.

She's very into soccer and gymnastics, and to be honest, I believe Mya could excel at any sport we asked her to try. She's got muscles I've never seen on my own body. She climbs poles, ropes, jungle gyms, anything she can find. I keep telling her she can try as many things as she wants until she finds her thing; I only hope she finds it sooner rather than later because driving her to all her activities is quite the chore.

Mya is still my mirror, not in looks, but in personality. We think she looks most like Tim's sister Anna. I see a lot of Tim's mom side in her. I see very little me in her until she smiles. She has smile lines for days. Her personality is a complex mix of sweet/cuddly and insane/dramatic. One minute she's up, the next she's down. She's her own roller coaster. Tim and I have really learned how to calm her storms, and sometimes I still like to ignite them because I'm basically a 5 year old, you know? But all in all, we are growing up together, and I like this whole growing up bit. I like the person she is becoming and the mom she is helping me to become.

I love my Mya. I really do. Hugging her warm body each morning when she finds me in bed still makes my days better. She is my gift.

The other girls really wanted to get in on the pictures so we gave them a flower and told them to smile. This is the best we could get, but it's actually very close to what real life looks like for us. I seriously can't handle the second picture of V. Tim told her to smell her flower, and well, apparently she's smelling it as hard as her little body can. ;)