Can you stay 4 forever?

One day… probably around April, 2014, I started making a simple request of Miss L on occasions that she did something amazingly adorable (which, to a mom, is almost everything all the time, so realize that I did limit myself). I found myself saying it time and time again, and over the year I took note of my favorite responses…

“Can you just stay 4 forever?”

“Oh I can’t Mommy. Or else I won’t get to grow up and big and be your best friend.”

“Can you please stay 4 forever?”

“No, because I REALLY like eating vegetables!”

“Won’t you please stay 4 forever?”

“But I want to go to Kindergarten! And you said I have to be 5 to go!”

“Can you please just and be 4 for a couple more years?”

“I want to grow tall and play basketball”

“Why can’t you be 4 forever?”

“I really don’t want to stop eating vegetables”

“If you don’t ever turn 5, you can eat ice cream every day!”

“But then I can’t marry Izzy!”

“Can’t you just stop growing up for a little while?”

“I don’t ever want to stop growing up. Unless I get to be tall like a giant. Then I’ll stop”

“Will you just

“I want to grow up and live in Africa. That means I need to grow up.”

“Can you just try and see if you can stop getting older?”

“Mommy! I just can’t! I love vegetables too much and they make you grow big and tall and strong!”

“No more birthdays – you’re going to be 4 forever!”

“Can I please just have this one birthday? Then I’ll think about staying 5 forever. But probably not”

Today, our darling Miss L turned 5 despite all of the universe-halting & Evie-time-stopping-power I tried to gather in these past 24 hours.

And despite my sadness that the miracle of age 4 has passed us by… I can also say that I’m so gosh darn grateful for the past 5 years and every single day from now on that I get to spend with her…

It must have been the power of all of those vegetables…

(which also explains why I haven’t ever grown up!)

Happy Birthday Miss L!