My oldest daughter turns 6 this week.

6 years old.

It just sound so old… so, not a baby, not a toddler, not a preschooler, but a… girl. 

I spent some time looking back at pictures and videos this past year and I realized that 5 is a significant year.  She grew up A LOT this past year.

She started school.

She learned to read.

She learned to add and subtract.

She lost 3 teeth.

She learned to ride a 2 wheeler.

She taught herself to slide tackle in soccer… totally illegal in pee-wee soccer, by the way, but so completely instinctual for her that it was impossible to get her not to do it.

She grew as a gymnast…learning new skills…taking longer classes…

She made new friends.

As my role shifted from just mom to mom and teacher in this year of her life, I realized I have gotten to know her better.   I didn’t know how much she loved numbers and math and order and categories. 

As I think back on her 5th year of life, I’ll remember the winter hats she loves to wear… 24/7  because “I like the way my head feels when I take it off.”… The way she always writes all her Sunday School papers in black and yellow crayon, alternating each letter, for every paper, every single week…the Hello Kitty book bag and lunch box that she was SO excited about getting for kindergarten that she proudly told anyone and everyone everywhere we went, all about it….The cute khaki jumper she wears to tutorial and the fact that she always has to put shorts on underneath so she’ll be allowed to do cart wheels at recess.

I love how easily she smiles and how hard she works.  I love watching her grow into herself.  She no longer follows in her big brothers shadow wanting to do everything that he does the way that he does it.  She’s come into her own.  Which has caused some ripples at the circus this year.  But, I love the girl God has created her to be and am excited to see her continue to grow. 

Now We Are Six – A.A. Milne

When I was one I had just begun
When I was two I was nearly new
When I was three I was hardly me
When I was four I was not much more
When I was five I was just alive
But now I am six, I’m as clever as clever;
So I think I’ll be six now for ever and ever.

Truthfully, the circus family doesn’t spend much time on bikes.  We do a lot of fun things here, don’t get me wrong, but there are only so many hours in a day, and teaching our kids to ride bikes has not been where we’ve spent ours.

But, today the sun was shining, the weather was unseasonably warm here in MD again, and as the kids played in the backyard while Scott did yard work, our oldest daughter decided that today she wanted to ride her bike without training wheels. 

And I just had a feeling that she was going to do it.  You know, how sometimes you just know? 

They set off around 4:15pm.  At 4:20, Scott sent me this text.

“Great strategy.  Let’s not ride for 6 mths then go for it.”

I began to doubt that feeling I had earlier,  But…

at 4:39pm he texted me a picture of her riding off into the distance.

That’s right!!  She did it!!!  My girl’s on two wheels!!!

My Happy 2 Wheeler!

When I uploaded my last video to you tube, I got side tracked with a little trip down memory lane as I then watched other videos the circus fam has posted to you tube in the past.

And I came across this gem.

A few things I noticed while re watching the video.

1.  My oldest son used to have that cute  4 year old voice you swear you’ll never forget but inevitably do.  Oh.my.goodness—listen to that sweet lil voice!

2.  It must have been spaghetti night at the circus for I can think of no other reason for all of my children to be walking around shirtless.

3.  A tripod can keep a toddler busy for a great amount of time… must pull out that tripod again next time I need an extra hand fixing dinner.

4.  On days when I think a tornado must have blown through my house, all I have to do is look back at the video, b/c I don’t think I have ever seen my house more messy than in this video clip.  Hello there is a an empty milk jug in baby doll stroller!!

As I watched this clip part of me can’t believe that I published this on you tube and my blog?  Really, shirt less kids, trash on the floor…. wow… can’t get more REAL than that.  Why couldn’t this egg nog talk have taken place when the house was clean and my kids were in cute coordinating outfits?

But, you know those golden moments usually don’t happen then.  They happen in the middle of real life.  Messy/dirty/every day life… And we gotta seize them while we can… we gotta stop and have those conversations or run and grab that video camera, right now… in the moment… b/c before you know it that moment is gone.

Our oldest daughter had a little fun getting into her character for Halloween.  When posing for pictures in their costumes, she decided to  fully act out the part of Snow White.

I think my favorite part of the reenactment was when she asked us to take her picture sleeping with the apple. "Skip the ol posing by the door with the trick or treat basket, we’ll go for playing dead on the floor with an apple.”

Then she was awakened with a kiss from her prince.

“Thanks Dad for being my prince,” she exclaimed.

Oh sweet girl, there’s nothing he’d like more than to be your prince forever.

Excuse me while I go blubber in the corner as I think about this picture one day popping up on the screen during a video montage at her rehearsal dinner… can’t you just stay our little girl forever? 

September 27th—He’s officially walking.. No longer just two or three steps then fall down, but plodding on his own across a room before he stumbles.

October 7th- 10 days later -

Watch out world! This boy is ready to play.

My lil man reached a major milestone today as he played in the sand. 

We’ve been going to the beach, splashing in the water and playing in the sand all summer long.  And all summer long he has wanted to put fist full upon fist full of sand into his mouth.  You’d think eventually cause and effect would come in to play, but he never seemed to mind the mouth full of grit.  Even when all I had to wash it out with was a mouth full of salty bay water.  It was the single most frustrating aspect of our afternoons at the bay.  I can’t just hold him the entire time and yet if I set him down he’s eating dirt. 

Well, today I held him till he grew wiggly and set him down.  Fully expecting him to begin his typical sandy snack.  But, he didn’t…

He sat and dug and picked up sand and dug and then splashed water in his bucket for a good 45 minutes… he crawled around in the hot sand, happily playing, and not ONCE putting any sand in his mouth!  I couldn’t believe it.  I kept gushing and then had to take pictures.  This is a huge milestone!  This makes beach time truly fun FOR ALL in the circus clan!  Oh happy day! 

After almost an hour of fun in the sun, I suggested we not push our luck any further, so we went up to the shade for some lunch.

Now doesn’t he look waaaay too grown up sitting at the table eating his own peanut butter sandwich?

Clearly, he is the baby of the family, because I could not stop gushing at the site of him sitting at the table and eating his own sandwich…

Can you blame me though?

I just love the mouth full of peanut butter..

As the big kids went back to the beach, I was really starting to melt after all that gushing over my baby growing up so much. 

And so, just to make his momma’s heart swell a lil more, he took his pacifier, laid his head down on my chest and fell into a deep hard sleep in my arms while I watched his sisters and brother play with their friends.  Proving that while he may be growing up, he’s still my baby!

My youngest daughter turns 4 this week. I often joke that she was born trying to keep up with her sister and brother.  It’s true though.  She is always ahead of where she should be b/c she has never wanted to be left behind.  As such, whenever her birthday rolls around I don’t have that typical, “How can it have been 4 yrs already?”  feeling, more often we’re like, “Really, your just now 4… seems like you’ve been 4 for awhile now.” 

One thing is true… she’s growing up too fast for my liking.  I have one more year left before she goes to school… and since we homeschool, going to school is thankfully only 2 days a week at the tutorial, but even still it marks a new stage of life. 

I want to be intentional with this last year… with our 2 mornings a week of time together when she is the big kid setting the pace for the household.  I learned so much about my older daughter when her brother went off to school.  I got to see new traits come out and her relationship with her sister truly blossomed.  I am eager to see the changes that develop when the dynamics change again this year. 

And I want to savor her sweet voice… I think that is what I will miss most when she grows up… the sweet sing songy voice and the cute way she mispronounces things…

I am excited to celebrate my sweet 4 year old this weekend….tomorrow we’re having a few of her close friends over to pamper them like princesses and next week Scott and I are taking her on a birthday date for dinner and a visit to Build a Bear.  I can’t wait to spend that special time with just us and her! 

While looking through pictures recently, I stumbled across a few which truly captured life at the circus in its essence.

Exhibit A: taken in December of 2010

Here they are working on the pine wood derby car for Cub Scouts.   Notice how everyone, even the baby, is in on the action?  Noticed the leotard?  My girls wear leotards every.single.day…. even though gymnastics is only twice a week, I can guarantee you those leotards are on more often than that.    Also, noticed my baby ripping his sisters glasses off?  He still loves to go for those glasses.  I love how he isn’t even looking at her, just out of the corner of his eye, he spots them and goes in for the grab…

Exhibit B: Taken in September of 2010

Here we are keeping the baby occupied.  My oldest son was reading to his little brother and then his sister had to follow suit.  It’s September and yet my daughter is wearing her bathing suit (even though I can pretty much guarantee you we didn’t go swimming that day) and my oldest son is wearing  an astronaut suit that is WAAAAY too small for him.  I believe his 3 yr old sister could fit into that more appropriately. 

Exhibit C: Also taken in September of 2010

I call this one tolerating tummy time.  And it really shows a lot about my son’s personality.  He was not a big fan of tummy time.  And even though his sisters are doing their best to entertain him… love how my 5 yr old is going to town on the baby piano for him, he really is not at all thrilled with this whole tummy time thing.  But he doesn’t cry… doesn’t complain… just lays there on his belly with a look that says, “How long Mom?”  “How long do I have to endure this?”

Something tells me that these pictures, not the posed group shots of them all smiling sweetly, these little glimpses of everyday life at the circus, are the ones I will treasure 20 years from now.  I’ll look at them and remember this crazy stage of life when the days were loooong and the years flew by way to fast.   Oh, how I love the chaos and costumes that makes up the circus life. 

Ya know that feeling you get when you look at your kids and you just wanna freeze time?  You don’t want them to grow up, not one bit, so you just try your best to hold on to the moments while you can.

Well, we figured out a way to freeze time here at the circus…just a little…

Our littlest crew member turned one earlier this month.  Not sure how that year flew by so fast.  

However, we didn’t celebrate his birthday until this past weekend.  So, in a way… we froze time for a little longer. 

But, now that his scrapbook and video are both finished (circus family 1st birthday traditions), and he’s had that first bite of cake, there really is no denying it…

The Circus Baby is one. 

I have a little header on my right side bar that says “One Year Ago”  though it will actually list posts from this date either 1, 2, or 3 yrs ago. (Can you believe Life At The Circus is over 3 yrs old?) 

Every now and then I will see  blog title under One Year Ago and it will catch my eye.  I think that tab alone is the motivation for me to keep blogging lately.  I hit a blogging rut this spring where I wasn’t posting or commenting much.  As I read these posts from the past, they provide little snippets into our life then… things I had forgotten and it encourages me to keep posting b/c I don’t want to forgot those precious snippets from today either.  It’s a reminder that even if no one is reading or commenting (besides the ever faithful grandmothers and Happy)  (Happy you seriously deserve the commenter of the year award… you are so faithful at commenting and your comments are often like mini blog posts themselves… they totally brighten my day and often make me laugh out loud)   I am blogging to preserve a piece of this circus life for later.  Because after watching this post from 3 yrs ago I remembered things I had forgotten, such as…

1.  The fact that my son used to speak in a cute lil cartoon character voice too.  I LOVE when he says, “focusing on the ball” I had totally forgotten that!

2.  How much his Uncle Jim Army uniform is truly a part of his childhood.  Seriously, that uniform is getting tucked in a box when he outgrows it.  (funny thing is the very same day I clicked on this post and watched the video, he was wearing the same Army uniform while playing in the backyard with his sister)

3.  The baby you hear saying dada that I am holding in my arms while videoing is me now almost 4 yr old…3 years later and here I am holding another sweet baby in my arm saying Dada

4.  The baby in Scott’s arms is now our 5 yr old.  (wow was that a crazy stage of life with a 4, 2, and 11mth old)

5.  My son has always been very, very literal.  (I am convinced this kid has a future in either law or the military… hmmm JAG perhaps?)

6.  Scott still watches the US Open on Fathers Day… took me till this year to realize it is on EVERY Father’s Day.  He doesn’t watch it all, but guarantee you he will turn it on at some point on Fathers Day and sit down with the kids and explain it to them.  And I still couldn’t care less about golf… seriously other than perhaps tennis and Nascar… I can’t think of anything more boring to watch.  

Click here and take a stroll with me down memory lane, to June 2008… I had a 4, 2 and 11 mth old.  Life At The Circus was still in its honeymoon phase.  Funny how much has changed and how much hasn’t.