Bye Bye, Baby.

My baby turns five today.

FIVE.

There is absolutely no baby in five.

There's barely even a hint of toddler left in five.

It's all little boy.

Five year old boy.

And he's quite proud of this accomplishment of turning five.

We all are, actually.

This boy fights hard to grow.

And one of his presents today?

He didn't have to finish his breakfast......when he started to fight me on eating, I said "hop down and go play!" 

And he looked at me like, "are you for REAL?!"

Then he ran as quick as he could and got the hell out of dodge.

Happy Birthday, Owen!

You get the day off. You can eat or not eat whatever you want!

(I'll just slip some extra in your tube tonight.....)

For today, enjoy being You.

Because you are special and unique and crazy fun.

And this mom is sad to see her baby go.

And excited to see where God leads him.

And mourning the end of an era. The end of babies and toddlers and diapers and bottles (well, we do still have formula) and overalls and first words and first teeth and first steps and first days of pre-school and little chubby fingers and pacifiers and nap times and chaos, oh the chaos. And I can already tell I'm going to be that sentimental old lady that every young mother hates telling her to enjoy the time because it passes quickly.......But seriously. It passes quickly. And even though those days were exhausting, and I do mean EXHAUSTING, there is a small part of me that will miss them.

But today we celebrate a boy who has worked every day of his life to grow to be the five year old that he is. So happy birthday to my O-Dawg. May your fifth year be full of blessings and good health.

"I'll love you forever. I'll like you for always.

As long as I'm living, my baby, you'll be."