Four.

My baby girl is 4 today! It's hard to believe she's already four years old, yet at the same time it feels like she's been a part of our family forever.

The year from three to four went by quickly. Every year goes by quickly, but this one seemed to go by extra fast. I feel partly guilty about that, because I spent a good portion of this year wishing it would hurry along--pretty much November thru March for an assortment of reasons (awful morning sickness, an even more awful winter, and nonstop viruses showing up at our door, to name a few). Then I blinked and here we are, June 2nd.

She finished her first year of preschool a week ago. She loved it, like I knew she would. She keeps saying that "after the baby comes I get to go back to school!". I'm glad she has that perspective and it's not something we have to fight over every day.

The weather today has been almost exactly the same as the day she was born. She came into this world on a beautiful day, almost 12 hours to the minute that the induction process was started to kick her out (stubborn girl...some things never change :)).

I asked her the other day what job she wanted to have when she grows up. She said "a doctor. A doctor for children." I have no doubt in my mind that she will achieve that goal if that's what she truly ends up wanting to do. I know this girl can achieve anything--she is a wicked combination of fierce independence, incredible brightness, and oodles of charm.

Those qualities will serve her well as she grows up and I hope she keeps them. But I'm not too worried about what job she will have when she's grown. I'm more focused on her maintaining the parts of her personality that, already at just four years old, make her such an awesome person. She's kind to people and to her, people are just that: people. She doesn't notice differences in people's skin colors, size, abilities or any of the other ways adults tend to notice and use to measure another person's worth. To her, everyone is fair game for being her friend. That part of her personality will get her farther and make me prouder than any job she could ever have. The world will do it's best to stamp that trait down, but my little firecracker--all 32 pounds of her--has already shown me that she's ready for the challenge.

Bring it on world: Charlotte's coming. And she's laughing at you :)

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, bright, best girl!

~Stacy