*FIVE*

Five years ago I became a mother, and a whole new life was born.




















 Oh, young first time mother, Julie the things I wish I could tell you, that you would just have ignored.

I always wanted to be a mother so I thought it would come naturally and easily, and frankly, it didn't. The transition was rough. I felt like I had to figure out my identity all over again. I made it more difficult than it had to be. I have an habitual problem of making mountains out of ant hills. Motherhood has been no exception.
But motherhood has made me grow more as a human being than anything else.
I am more proud of who I am today than ever before and I have my daughters to thank for that.
I didn't lose my identity; the focus changed.
Raising human beings has forced me to evaluate the quality of human being I am. It has pushed me and motivated me to be better. Perhaps I would have done this just by maturing? But I think motherhood was a catalyst for it.

And I do believe, this is our first family photo.

And here is our girl.
-->  I often feel the urgent desire to write her apology letters all.the.time. The poor first born child a.k.a the guinea pig. The mothering failures for this child are the successes for the next one.

She made a place right in our hearts with her sparkly eyes and sweet soul.

She continues to delight us with her bright smile and thirst for adventure.

She loves arts and crafts. Her drawing skills are quite impressive, but not as impressive as this girl's social life. Just the other day, she went to FOUR different friend's houses, FOUR, and that's not counting when her friends came to our house.

She loves dance class and loves to tell jokes, jokes which usually involves "poop'.

For example, "Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it had to... go poop." She even pauses for dramatic effect and laughs her little head off after she says it.


And these were her school/dance pictures.