Ava is 5! FIVE, Y'ALL!

As of 12:27pm on December 28th (yeah, I know it was nearly six weeks ago at this point, but whatevs!), I've been a mother for five years. Half of a decade. I've been a mother for 16% of my life. 

Not only that, but Ava is five years old. She's been alive for (over) five years. It really is phenomenal to think that just over five years ago, there was a giant Ava shaped chunk of my heart missing, since it feels as though she's just as much a part of me as my leg or my lungs or my eyes.

At five, Ava is:

- 43 pounds

- 46" tall

- amazingly smart. She seriously blows my mind every day. About a month before her fifth birthday, Ava started reading! I've been working with her on sounding things out and putting different consonants and vowels together, and one day it just clicked! We got some of the BOB books for her to start with, and she read an entire one to me one day in the car. I may have teared up in the front seat.

- a talented gymnast. She's recently stepped up from her previous preschool classes to school-aged gymnastics, and she can do the beginnings of a cartwheel and a pretty decent handstand. She also tends to crush it on the bars and beam. 

- is still an amazing natural athlete. She can dribble a soccer ball, shoot the ball with the best of them, she's got a great arm, and the other day, when she hit the t-ball with the bat, she cracked the bat. SHE CRACKED IT. We're looking to get her into a little league team this season.

- has a great sense of style. It's not uncommon for her to wear multiple outfits a day, with dresses and tights with tennis shoes being her favorite look. She's definitely a girly girl.

- lately it seems her taste buds are changing, as she'll ask for one of her favorite foods (soup, chicken tenders, tacos/rice/beans, taquitos), and then not want to eat it, citing that it doesn't taste good. 

- has hair past her shoulders, and has been compared to Sofia the first. I totally see it now :)

- her favorite shows are Octonauts, Scooby Doo and Wow Wow Wubbzy!, and she's enjoyed watching Frozen a trillion times, as well as Harry Potter, Homeward Bound and The Sound of Music. 

- sings along in the car, and can be found singing often. It warms my heart to hear this. "Uptown Funk", the Mamma Mia soundtrack, and Taylor Swift's '1989' are amongst her favorite songs.

Happy, happy birthday, Ava! We love you like crazy.