happy birthday, dear kieran

My baby, my son, my boy.

Today you turned 5.

5 years old.

I feel like we just began our journey as first time parents and here you are, almost finished with preschool, and beginning Kindergarten in the Fall.

Each year rushes by so quickly. I feel like I just wrote your birthday post when you were turning 4. 

At 5 you:

are 42 1/2 inches (according to Daddy who measured you tonight when you asked)

are in to Star Wars, Bakugans, Wii

love golf, soccer, and riding your bike

tell me you love me at the most perfect moments

love playing outside with Daddy

love entertaining your sisters

love to dance

care for friends and family the way that I hoped my child would; with compassion, and with all your heart and might.

Our lives were forever changed the day you were born, in ways that we never could have dreamed.

You amaze me every day with the new concepts that you learn, and the questions that you ask.

You have an imagination that is out of this world-it's like watching my very own Toy Story.

When I first learned that we were having a boy, I was nervous and scared. Afterall, I had a sister and most of my cousins were girls, what was I going to do with a boy? Would I know how to take care of you, raise you, teach you?

I have "my days" like any mommy does, where I feel like I am challenged to exhaustion, yet I'm challenged to be a better me. Yes, my sweet Kieran, you have taught me so much in these last 5 years, I sometimes wonder who is teaching whom?

Your love for life is powerful.

I often wish that I looked at the world through your lens, as it is untainted and non-judgmental. Oh, if all the world were this way...

may you always carry this beautiful gift.

You are heaven sent, and you are your own little life.

Daddy and I are the very blessed parents who have the honor of guiding you through.

Happy 5th Birthday, my sweet Kieran Andrew!