Five

It's a little baffling that my youngest is now five years old. She looks five. I guess it must be true. And today's pediatrician appointment confirms that she's still strictly average...50th percentile for weight and between 50 and 75 for height. Huh. How'd that happen?

It doesn't really matter that I moved Smunch's birthday party up two weeks this year. It still seemed like Mam's birthday came the very next day. It didn't. But it did become a 3-day event with a celebration in her "Innovative" class the day before her birthday, another celebration in her regular preschool class on her birthday, a family celebration and her birthday party on Saturday.

For school, I made our traditional birthday cookies, as Mam requested. You'd think she'd get tired of these and request messy, sugar-laden cupcakes, but these are cute and seem to be just fine with her. Besides, they make so many that I could make enough for both school parties.The celebration in the Innovative class was pretty low key. It involved having the teacher read my account of what Mam had done with each year of her life thus far and then having Mam pass out her cookies. Smunch was happy to join me since he was out of school by that time.

The biggest event of Thursday was that Aunt Karen and SPENCER! arrived in time for dinner and the kids all got to spend a little time together before bedtime.

Friday morning started with a very happy Mam opening a new Hanna Anderssen outfit from Gram Pam and Grandpa Ryder. Naturally, she wore that to school despite it being kind of a crazy combination of things...that matched, sorta.Birthdays in the regular preschool classes are a lot of fun. The puppet, Goocha, comes out to try and find the birthday child. He listens to the kids' ears to see if he can hear the birthday song in there, looks for balloons up their noses and looks at their teeth for signs of birthday cake crumbs.Then there's candle lighting and blowing out before snacks.Again, Mam passed out cookies to her classmates...but this time, SPENCER! was there to join in the activities. He was uncharacteristically unenthusiastic to be there. He was shy and clingy.He ate his cookie and finally warmed up when he joined the kids on the playground and started having a blast. He even joined in at story time, announcing to the whole class that he was silly, just like that picture in the Dr. Suess book.We had to wait until Smunch and Daddy got home before Mam could open presents. Naturally, SPENCER! wanted to help. Mam didn't really appreciate his efforts.When it comes to presents, Mam is a lot of fun. You always know exactly what she thinks. She never holds anything back and shows no sign of being the least bit self conscious about it. When she opened a new tin tea set, "Oh, a tea set..." (moving along to the next package). But when she opened a pretty little plush winged horse...I love this look. It makes her a really rewarding kid to give presents to. She also loved her new roller skates, her Cinderella doll and Thumbelina, who hides in a flower.

Per tradition, we went to Mam's favorite restaurant for her birthday, which meant taking a trip to Fresh Choice in chilly winter weather. But Mam was happy. That was the end of the festivities for the night because goodness knows...I had a cake to work on!