Sunday 10 November 2019

Another milestone

We celebrated AJ’s 5th birthday on the 9th (a bit after her actual birthday as she has friends with similar birthdays and had other parties to attend. Lucky girl.) 

At her party AJ had a dance lesson with her friends. Her theme was unicorns. I enjoyed the fanciful nature of the event and appreciated the distraction of organizing it. AJ and Dani wore unicorn dresses and I bought myself unicorn leggings to match. All the kids had a good time.



AJ has been saying she’s an artist for the past few months. And she has expanded her creativity exponentially since starting school.  Many of her presents involve making different crafts (which is great but  I am only going to let her open more as they are completed as I get twitchy at the thought of multiple incomplete projects: got too many of my own likely.). I bought her two sketchbooks and a book on how to draw animals.

AJ drew this picture of herself feeling happy on the day of her party.





Anyway, I have kind of a thing about fives and it occurred to me today that we have now been a family with children longer than we have been a family without children.  Counting from the year of our wedding, it was Mr Turtle and I from 2010 to 2014 and  then a family of three, later four from 2014 to 2019. Four years without kids, five years with kids. Since infertility was such a major issue in our lives I feel like I should acknowledge that. And barring some tragedy, the number of years with kids will continue to accumulate  while the years without will never change and will become the tinier part of the ratio. Kinda puts it in perspective.

It’s interesting; the year I started the blog, 2013, feels longer in a way than all the years since AJ was born. And I suppose I could count the early agonizing weeks of the first pregnancy in there. But when I look at AJ now the song lyric goes through my head: “Time started moving on the day we met.” So hold on, hold on the chorus continues. I try. Precious hugs and kisses and conversations.

8 comments:

  1. I love her cake!! I am so glad the party turned out so well and that the kids all had fun...it sounds magical!
    So sweet that she calls herself an artist. I love it! My Kindergartener is also really big into being artistic and crafts right now, it’s amazing to watch his imagination and see the stuff he creates. He seriously stays occupied for hours.
    That song quote really rugged at my heartstrings...Gah! ❤️

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! yes the "stay occupied for hours" part of the art is great. The sketchbook was a great idea haha though she's doing her best to finish the whole thing in a week lol. But it's a healthy, positive thing for them to be occupied with.

      Here is the full song that lyric is from. It's a good one. Written as a love song.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z59h3m4AdgY

      Delete
  2. What a beautiful cake, and her drawing is AMAZING! Her proportions are amazing and I love the hair! So cool that you are providing her with tools to keep developing this interest and talent. Wow, that's an interesting thought about how time continues on and points of struggle (specific struggle, anyway) become farther out and smaller in scale in reference to everything else. I've now been a teacher longer than I've ever been anything else, and thinking about that that way makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I look forward to looking back on the struggle and having more years of resolution under my belt!

    Happy birthday, AJ! And a hug for your song lyrics at the end. (())

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. AJ has loved drawing for quite a while but she is learning a lot at school, whether formally or not....She puts so much MORE into her art, now. It's cool to see her discover and expand her interests, start to create a little identity for herself.

      That's so cool you could apply my observation about times of struggle becoming farther away to teaching. I'm glad it made you warm and fuzzy! I wish I could do the same for myself, career wise right now....but I'm still in day to day mode trying to stay on top of it. It's hard. But hopefully one day it will feel different.

      Delete
  3. Aw she looks so happy in that picture! Bet the girls looked cute in their unicorn outfits :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes much cuteness to go around! Thank you.

      Delete
  4. Unicorns are big 'round here. We had a unicorn cake too for my daughter's fourth birthday. I love the reflection of years with and without kids. I didn't think of that before.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Late replying to you comment, but thank you! it's always good to take the time to reflect.

      Delete