Magical 5

I love the age of 5. I'm aware that some, perhaps many, of the precious moments of childhood pass by me so quickly that I don't take the time to appreciate them in the chaos of the background noise. Right now, however, I am savoring Natalie at the age of 5. The age when her body is stretching out, tall and lean, her face has shades of the woman she will become, her hair is the longest it's ever been, and yet she still maintains that sweet 5 yr old innocence. There are still words that she pronounces so adorably incorrectly. She has the ability to get lost in a fantasy world of her own making (and what I wouldn't give for that myself, some days). And she still has the naivete to believe just about anything.

She was super excited last week about the Tooth Fairy visiting preschool. The Fairy visited last year as well, and Natalie remembers her well. Not once did she question why the Fairy hands out toothbrushes with the same logo as our pediatric dentist. She just talked on and on about how the tooth fairy has a purple wand, wings and fairy dust. She explained it all very earnestly to Owen. She does love it when she knows something and he does not. After this year's visit she told me very matter-of-factly that "The fairy last year was a fake, because this year we had the real one." So I'm assuming the dentist hired a new fairy. I hope there wasn't a fairy falling-out.

Then a few days later Natalie was the belle of the Ball, going to the Daddy/Daughter dance with Jim, and she seemed so poised and elegant. It made my stomach flutter nervously, picturing her as a teen or adult, primping to go out. For now, she was simply so excited to go out with her Daddy. Aaahhh I love the age of 5.