Affinity for Growing Things

"I've always had an affinity for growing things." -Maynard James Keenan

Something about her fourth birthday coming up, some days it feels like she's getting away from me, growing so fast.

And I'm not imagining things, she steadily puts on a half an inch every six months. We measure on the wall.

She gets smarter every day, so old methods for convincing her to bend to my will are starting to grow stale. Not to mention it's a lot harder to pick her up and put her in her room for a time-out if she's being stubborn.

And... stubborn... yes. Very.

I know every year about this time I start wailing about where my tiny baby has gone, but seriously. She didn't gain back her birth weight until she was like 4 months old. And now she is HUGE.

Despite my efforts to let her stay little, she still daydreams about riding to high school on a motorcycle and becoming a veterinarian. She explains the different functions of blood to near-strangers. She isn't bothered when I drop her off anywhere.

She loves to look at magazines in the car (this was taken when we were parked btw)

Dressing up!

Getting a jump on driving lessons with Daddy.

But you know what? Inside my heart, she still looks exactly like this:

And she still wants her lullabies at night. And sometimes she cries when I leave and tells me I'm making a sad place in her heart. And I'm still chief boo-boo kisser, food-maker, chauffeur, playmate, and audience. She is not as little as she was, nor is she as big as she will be. And she makes me proud every day.