And now she is five.

Forgive me, i’m going to smultz 🙂

Amelie is 5 today; she has had a ball all weekend, celebrating becoming the very most important age she can imagine 🙂

It seems to me that my childrens’ characters can be determined by the manner of their birth and Amelie arrived late, over-dramatic, in a hurry and with something of a deathwish… that’s pretty much how she lives her life 😆 She is a girl of many characteristics, amusing, eloquent, impudent, outrageous, unremitting – she isn’t an easy mix of anything to live with. She teases, tests, tantrums and taxes but with that she is the most loving, the most perceptive, the most loyal, the champion of any underdog, the one who always notices when there is hurt, or unfairness, or sadness. She is the one who will come and comfort a sister, a daddy or a mummy when she sees it is needed, and she does it without requiring any feedback or thanks.

It’s fair to say that Amelie and i have had our ups and downs over the last 5 years, from birth onwards. No child who will wilfully take the side of your nipple off at 10 months, having looked you in the eye with evil intent the moment before, is likely to give you an easy ride. I’m still not convinced Amelie didn’t scupper my homebirth plans on purpose. 😆 But for all she is one of the children in this house with the means to test me the most, she is also one who brings colour and dynamic to the house (and possibly colourful dynamite!) The tremendous courage with which she faces her food intolerances, the patience she has with us when we get it wrong, the intelligent questions she asks, the utterly beautiful love and loyalty she has for her best friend Buttercup, the quick witted, clever and beautiful little face that is emerging from the scrawy little scrap of dry skin and shadowed eyes of 18 months ago, all these things are the result of 5 years of Amelie becoming Amelie.

I’ve looked at this child, this time 5 years ago, thanking my lucky stars that she wasn’t already just a memory, i’ve sat with her the night i thought she was going to die from something unthinkably common place, i’ve sat up 1 night in 3 for most of the last 5 years stroking her skin and rubbing in cream, trying to help her sleep when the itching was so bad. She has been needy and hard to keep happy and healthy for a long time; but now she is learning to look after herself. This week i listened to her telling Josie how to stroke the back of her own knees because it would fix the itching better than scratching and i realised with pride that she is a proper big sister now, already with life experience to share, worming her way firmly into the “big girls” life, demanding to read and do sums and learn to write. She doesn’t want to be one of the little ones any more.

Tonight she and i went out and spent her £45 worth of birthday money, completing a haul of presents that i’ve not seen the like of for a good while. She knew exactly what she wanted, took her money in her own (new) bag and found the playdoh set, the Tinkerbell dress and the playsets that she wanted and talked to the cashier all on her own, handed over her money to him all on her own and took her change back – such a big girl. She’s marked the occasion 0f being 5 by going through her clothes drawer and hurling out all the things for 3-4 year olds, they are now “too small” apparently! She’s has thanked everyone prettily for their presents (adorable dressing up dress from Auntie Greer and co, beach accessories from Fran, doll clothes from Josie, clothes from Max, stamping and drawing stuff from me, dvd and pjs from Granny and Grampty to name but a few) and then she asked Granny if she could have money too, because she quites like that as a concept 🙄 Such a cheek… and so… very….very… Absolutely Amelie 🙂

EDIT: Last years birthday post. I’m consistant then :)