True Beauty Comes from Within

I remember thinking how grown up C looked in this picture when I first took it. How much of a little lady she looked standing there all poise. Five isn't lady like. Five isn't mature. Five is tousled hair and dirty dresses. Five is chocolate smudged on your face and dirt on your elbows. Five is sweet, adorably stubborn, and always sticky. Yet here was C, five and elegant. Five and posing still like some grown up model for a photo shoot. Okay well maybe that's from years of me always making her model so I can take pictures, but still... she's only five. It's strange to feel like she is so young, to know that she is so young and then look at her and see how much she's grown. Sometimes I feel like I turn around and there is this girl standing beside me where I swore a tiny toddler was tugging on my pant leg before. Kindergarten was this huge milestone and now it seems so far away even though only a couple months have passed. I was calculating about how long it'll take me to get my degree since I'm starting back to school this fall. I figured 4-5 years, that's not so long but measuring it by the ages of my kids... C will be going into 5th or 6th grade depending on whether I can manage 15 credits a semester or only 12. She'll be a preteen by then! With A only 2 years behind her. And now I'm reading that the preteen ages start as early as age 8? That's only a year and a half for C! I can't imagine her being that old already. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around 7. My baby is going to be 7 years old. Is it like this for all moms? Each year you're always behind and just when you start to get the hang of them being an age they are suddenly another year older and somehow everything has changed. It feels like every year around fall I'm shocked. Shocked at how old my girls are, how fast they went from babies to toddlers and now toddlers to school girls. I asked Audrey the other day if she could stop growing and just stay small. You know what she told me? "I have to grow! I have to get to 5!" I laughed and squeezed her while inwardly wondering if she'd let me keep her small after 5.

Green at Heart Papers by Basic Grey
Paper Doll Collection Paper by Crate Paper
Kraft Cardstock from Roberts
FieldHouse Flocked Boutique by American Crafts
Lush Decorative Brads in Green by My Minds Eye
Mini Type Alphas by Jenni Bowlin
Bird Chipboard bases by Scenic Route
Free Bird Beauty Title from Penny Lane by My Minds Eye
Buttons by Papertrey Ink
Hollihock Ribbon by CTMH