Hazel’s FIVE!!!

which means I’ve been a mother for FIVE years. Sometimes that seems unbelievable, other times it feels like it’s been much longer than that. Who was I before I was a mother? Really though, this post is not about me, it’s about my dear five year old Hazel.

She had a great birthday. One of my big goals as a mother is to manage her expectations down a bit about birthdays (she has my genes after all….). We’ve decided to only do friend birthday parties every other year….so this was her off year. It took her a few tantrums and a few weeks to get used to the idea that her “yellow” birthday party (where everything is yellow) that she has been planning in her head was going to have to wait until she turns 6. She adjusted though and I think she had a pretty good day. She is psyched to be five and has been asking me to tell all grown ups how old she is ever since her big day. The best part about Hazel’s fifth birthday is that she got to go to her very first day of non-joy-school-school on that very day. She’s been ready and begging to go to school for a long time, so the actual day was super exciting for her. After school we celebrated her birthday and their first day of school by getting ice cream at “the cow place” by our house.

Hazel has decided that her favorite foods all have to do with pots. So, we had German pancakes for breakfast (made by dad….in a “pot”), pot stickers for lunch, and chicken pot pie for dinner. Hazel’s even big enough to decorate her very own birthday cake. It was a beauty…..really much better than I could have done and packed with Hazel charm. Hazel has a birthday tradition of camping. We had two trips planned close to her birthday, but they both got totally rained out. So, Jeff set up the tent in the back yard and we all slept out there (minus emmeline who we listened for on the monitor). It was much more fun than I thought it would be….and much colder. Sadly, the next day we left the tent out for the kids to play in…..unbeknownst to me, they brought in a ton of stuff (library books, toys etc) and then it rained and rained and rained soaking a lot of expensive library books…..c’est la vie.

Top ten things I LOVE about my five year old Hazel:

10. she has opinions. this little one has a sure sense of what she likes, what is cool, how she wants to dress, how she should do her hair. She will not be persuaded. I love it (and sometimes I hate it!)

9. She is the sweetest big sister. She loves and cares for Charlie and Emmeline almost as much as I do! She sweetly encourages Charlie, disciplines him by threatening to tickle him (not sure how she got that one, but it works), teaches him all kinds of things, is his truest and dearest friend. She is always helping me to make Emmeline happy and can make her laugh like no ones business. She even put on Emmeilne’s pants for me the other day!

8. Hazel is an artist. The most amazingly cute things come out of this little girls head and onto the paper. I love seeing what she creates.

7. Hazel really does have googolplex brains. She gets things so quickly and explains them back to me complete with big hand gestures and analogies to show she really gets it. I can have such great conversations with her now. Her little brain is craving to know everything. I love it.

6. Hazel will come and cuddle with me in the mornings, she’s still and sweet and warm. Oh, I’ll miss those days.

5. Hazel is learning to read! I can tell she’s super motivated to be able to read books to herself, she really loves books. Her little eyes lit right up when I told her that once she knew how to read she could read pretty much whenever she wanted to (no limitations like there are with TV and the computer!).

4. Hazel has a golden heart. Sure, she disobeys sometimes and doesn’t always make the right decisions, but her heart wants so much to do the right thing. She is eager to please and to be kind. Lately she has been telling me that she has been praying and asking Heavenly Father to help her to be kind….and I have to say it is working, she is mostly so kind and sweet. She’s such a good example to Charlie in this regard.

3. Hazel loves beauty. She is always pointing out beautiful things to me. I love rediscovering beauty through her minds eye.

2. Hazel is extremely curious. She loves to experiment with all kinds of things. She loves to know how her body works, how babies learn, how the world works. She’s not really afraid to know anything.

1. Hazel is faithful 100%. She is the most trustworthy kid I can imagine. She never lies to me. Never. And I really can always trust that she’ll do what she says she’s going to do (especially if I ask her, “can I trust you to do that Hazel?” She takes these things seriously….she doesn’t want to loose my trust….at this age? What a sweet quality.

Oh, I love this little 5 year old. I’m so happy that I get this year with her before she goes off to school forever.