Happy 5th Birthday Baby Girl

So I am a little late in posting this and I was a little late in posting Tyler’s 9th birthday post too. You can read about all the snow we got in our weekly post which is what has thrown off my plans. It is birthday central here as you know, I have all three kids and my husband, Robert’s birthday all within a month. Aria’s is the last of our birthday’s and is, in fact, a day after Tylers. I am writing her 5th birthday post, in sheer disbelief at the fact she is 5 already. I am sure it wasn’t that long ago since I was announcing I was pregnant and then our baby girl was here.  Aria has changed so much this year. Her final year at a nursery to starting school in August was the biggest contributing factors.

Changed days since this little cutie entered our lives. She is now a gorgeous, red-headed, feisty, stubborn and loving school girl.

At the start of the year saw us registering Aria for school just before her 4th birthday, being my last baby, this was a tough one to do, but she couldn’t wait to go and that was the main thing. Our job as parents is to help them grow, nurturing and learning into the best adults we can help them to be. Isn’t it? She loved her time at nursery, spending time with friends, playing indoors and out. She loved her teacher and that was a blessing. It was an end of an error when graduation came round in June and we said our cheers of pride at my little girl on stage collecting her graduation certificate in her cap and gown. It was a teary moment. Not only was she moving on, but we wouldn’t have any other kids going to the wonderful nursery that has seen all three kids through their pre-school years.

Her final year in the nursery was joined by her best friend. The two of them are thick as thieves, so kind and loving towards each other. They look out for each other and are just the sweetest when together. I think this has helped massively with Aria thriving at nursery and then through her induction days at school and feeling confident at going to school. It is a big step and they went straight into full days too. Hand in hand they went to school and never looked back.

I’ve spoken a lot about how worried I was about Aria going to school and even nursery for that matter, she never speaks to anyone when I am around, that includes her grandparents. When I am not there she’s fine and it took me a while to realise this. I spend all my time apologising for a little girl who talks non stop and has done since a very young age. She is also louder than the boys, yet would cling to my leg and hide if someone spoke to her. She still does this. I’ve stopped apologising as I know she’ll come round in her own time. When she visits places she doesn’t know it takes her time to come out her shell, then there is no stopping her. She is painfully shy and doesn’t like being the centre of attention, just like her mum. However, at school and nursery, she always put her hand up, maybe not straight away, but she participated in games, songs and always answered when asked a question. Just when I wasn’t around. I was lucky to see her at school when she didn’t know I was there and witnessed first hand she was settling in. I think having her best friend helped immensely in this, but they aren’t clingy to each other either and play with other kids, which was both mine and her friends mum’s concern. They run up to each other having not seen each other for a while and give the biggest hug. After Christmas was the sweetest thing ever. Adorable and I hope they are friends for life. They are both strong-willed, so I am sure there will be a few storms along the way.

At school she gets her lunch, her reading is coming by leaps and bounds, as is her spelling and maths. She is really enjoying it. Her teacher says she is settling in well and even being one of the youngest, is showing maturity and interest at a young age. We couldn’t be prouder of how she has taken to school.

Aria loves clothes and will spend hours going through her clothes and wanting to buy clothes. She changes a hundred times a day and has her own style. There is no telling this girl what to wear or not to wear. Getting a bag of clothes is her favourite ever. She loves things sparkling, pink and purple.

Aria loves dolls and will spend hours pushing them into the pram, pretend to feed them, talking to them and putting them to bed. This year she has loved getting Luvabella and still plays with her every day. She is sweet and kind tempremented with the dolls. Little figures she loves playing with and her roleplaying imaginative play is adorable. Her and Tyler spend hours playing together, colouring in and chatting. They both have a lot of patience and enjoy spending time on things.

I may have mentioned that Aria is stubborn, she is so different to the boys. It really is a pick your battles when it comes to her. Hence the clothes are a battle that isn’t worth it. She has great dress sense anyway. She gets so excited and loves to go out and do things. If that is going to Disney on Ice, bowling, skating, the cinema or just out for dinner.

Like me, Aria is a huge Disney fan and Snow White is still her favourite which is why she wanted a cake made. She is the only one of the kids who will sit and watch a film and we have watched many. I have loved it. The boys aren’t as interested and Tyler hates gong to the cinema. Aria and I went to see Disney on Ice together this year and it was a treat. We also saw the new Frozen feature at the cinema when it was out. I think my favourite memories this year is introducing Aria to witches. Anyone that knows me or follows me here or on social media, knows I have a love of witches. We have been reading about them in various different books and started The Worst Witch books, she’s a little young for them, but enjoys a chapter a night for a while. We have also been watching The Worst Witch TV show, the new one. Have you seen it? It’s great and we love sitting down together, some popcorn and enjoying it. I loved this when I had an afternoon off work and she was only at a nursery in the morning. Since starting school we do this on the weekends when we can. I’m sure Tyler is getting into it too.

Aria over the last year has started exploring the outdoors more at the house, she’s venturing further, still within sight, but playing with other kids in the street and racing around on their scooters and bikes. Having said Aria was stubborn, well, I came home from work one night and there she was outside with her bike wanting the stabilisers taken off. I explained that it was almost bedtime and I had dinner to make and didn’t have the time to hold her to learn. I said we’d do it at the weekend, but no, she was adamant they were coming off. Off the came and let’s face it we were expecting her to give up and wait until the weekend. Nope, there she was, straight on and away she went. 4 years old and pedalling her wee heart out up and down the straight. To say we were amazed was an understatement. A bike was what she asked Santa for this year and boy does she love it.

Aria enjoyed ours holidays and is the first to go in and explore. She likes to stay over in one of the boy’s rooms as usually, Tyler wants to share with her. They are such good friends and Tyler is so patient with her. He is really good at sharing, she’s not quite so good yet, but they do seem to get on so well. Their bond is lovely to see. Aria loved playing on this swing and enjoyed swimming this year also. We hope to improve on that this year.

Robert’s family is very close and Aria is especially close to her cousin’s so when we went away last year she loved staying in the room with them. She also enjoyed having a sleepover at their house in the summer. We are lucky they live so close and get to go to school together.

Aria has been enjoying the school parties, plays and dresses down days at school. She gets the chance to try on different clothes and loves to get her hair done. She won’t sit still long enough for a french plait but is wanting hair as long as Rapunzel. She has a gorgeous red colour and that hasn’t changed, I hope she will love it as much as others do as she gets older.

All of our kids are very close, the share each other’s joy and heartache. I love their bond and it’s something I feel I missed out on being an only child.  But, one that I feel they have been gifted with and I love watching them interact, chat, play and even bicker. This is something I feel gives children confidence. I know it’s very different these days with clubs, after-school clubs, even cars help with the social aspects of being an only child. Speaking of clubs, Aria gave up dancing when she wouldn’t leave my side, same went for gymnastics after being on the waiting list for a year. I am hoping this year we will get her into a club or form a hobby. She supports the boys and is always seen on the sidelines patiently watching their games of football. As long as she has a drink and a snack she’s happy as you can see.

Aria loves the cat and is often found carrying Twilight around and she doesn’t bat an eyelid. Twilight is protective of her and I’ve seen her nip her when she thinks there is something wrong. It’s not nice for Aria, but it’s not an aggressive manner, it’s just her teeth are sharp. Aria is a deep soul who is painfully shy at times, she loves to play, bake, craft and give hugs to those she is comfortable with. She is a true mummy’s girl but loves her brothers and her daddy deeply. There is a special bond between father and daughter and it has been lovely to watch that grown this last year between these two.

Aria wanted a Snow White cake and she helped me make it. She loved playing with the leftover icing making beds for the little figures. She’s a girly girl, but can stand on her own two feet and rules the roost with the boys. She is a happy girl and this year has seen her make so much progress in writing and at school. She’s changed so much and really is a little girl, filled with wonder and delight at everything around her. I am one proud mummy and look forward to seeing what her 5th year has in store for us all.

Not the best picture, but one that captured her on her birthday. She was overwhelmed with the gifts, going to school and people wishing her happy birthday. She blew everyone kisses who said happy birthday. Both of the boy’s classes sang her happy birthday at school as well as her own class. She might seem shy, but loves being sung happy birthday too. In fact, this girl loves to sing and can be seen belting her wee heart out. But don’t look at her. Happy birthday my gorgeous girl and we love you so much. You bring us joy and happiness and complete our little family.

I have blogged since before she was born you can read all about her first birthday, second birthday, third birthday. and fourth birthday. This is why I blog, recording wonderful memories.