She's 5 - hard to believe...

Where did my adorable 2-year old go? We met her three years ago on March 9th, brought her home on March 19th and now she's an amazing 5-year old? Oh my, hard to believe.

The birthday gal in her birthday tiara. "These rubies and diamonds Mommy?" Nothing but the best for you baby!

Opening "just a few" gifts. Yikes, kind of went overboard and justified it by saying "it's a special birthday - you don't turn 5 every day". Okay.

A ballet leotard. Ballet - one of Helaina's most recent obsessions.

Two big hits - Tinkertoys and a Dorothy dress.

Jim picked up the cake on Saturday but we wouldn't let Helaina see it until her birthday morning. Her first look at the cake produced a small smile, then a huge grin followed by "it's beautiful".

Balloons and Disney Princess plates, of course.

Playing her Backyardigans guitar while singing into her Tinkertoy microphone. How funny is this kid.

Look at these cutie-pies. You wouldn't think that 4 small children could make so much noise but at times throughout the party it was deafening.

I was pleasantly surprised that the kiddos actually sat still (sort of) and I was able to quickly snap some cute pics of the group.

Helaina was right - it was a beautiful cake, and yummy too.

Her favorite part - singing and candle blowing.

Oh, that frosting is so good. The birthday girl wanted chocolate cake and chocolate chip ice cream.

Helaina is thrilled to be 5 years old. She'll tell anyone who will listen to her. "I 5. I 5 now. It was my birthday on February 27 and now I 5. When I go to school in September I ride on the bus. On my next birthday I be 6." ... yes you will, but let me get used to the idea of you being 5 first. And just like the book says, Helaina Marie, we love you like crazy cakes.

Let the fun begin...

With Helaina's 5th birthday in just a few days (OMG, is my baby really going to be 5 years old?!), we decided it was time to get her into the wild & wacky world of kids sports activities. After some research, we decided that gymnastics would be a better fit for our energizer bunny than a ballet & dance class would be (ballet? really? look at those thighs - Jim joked that no male ballet dude would ever be able to lift her up!!!). We visited the gymnastics place tonight, observed a little, filled out the paperwork, Jim got out his checkbook and we signed her up to start next Saturday. Helaina can't wait to get at it - "I can start gymnastics now? I want to now. Why do I have to wait? [groan, whine]".

On the way home we stopped at Target and got her the required leotard and she's absolutely thrilled with it. The studio has an observation area set up for the parents who want to watch the classes. It comes with some restrictions, though - no parental interfering, no talking to your child, no distractions, no photos or videos (gasp!!!!!) - basically you can just sit quietly and watch from the peanut gallery, but that's ok with me - all except the part about no photos! Next research project - soccer!

A few pics from tonight's tubby adventure. She's adorable even soapy and all drippy wet.

Blowing bubbles in the tub.

Asleep on the couch one afternoon last week. Helaina was thrilled to wake up and see that Zoey had joined her on the couch, so ...

... later that night she covered up Zoey with her pink doll blanket. Zoey actually liked it and didn't move for quite a while.

Curly-haired cutie-pie

Helaina got all spiffied up for her Valentine's Day party at school on Monday. She's been asking me to curl her hair for a while now and I haven't tried because it's so fine and straight that I thought it wouldn't hold a curl. I was (happily) wrong! I pulled out an old curling iron with a thin barrel, set it to high and had at it. Voila, soft wavy curls! She looked so adorable and she was EXTREMELY pleased.

Every day since then she's asked "We curl my hair today?"

She also wanted her nails done with pink polish and nail decals.

She wore a heart hair clip, heart-studded shirt, black with silver hearts "Kiki" skirt and heart socks.

Can't let a holiday pass without helium balloons, and Daddy got each of his "girls" a vase of flowers. Helaina loved the pink and purple roses that were in mine. "Daddy, can I have roses on my birthday?" Gee, what do you think?

We sent gift bags into school and I provided the beverage for their party - Helaina's favorite strawberry milk. She came home with a bag full of goodies from her friends - cards, pencils, cookies, stickers, erasers, crazy straws, tattoos - it was like Halloween all over again.

"Reading" Daddy's Hello Kitty card.

An angel bracelet for Daddy's little girl.

What's Valentine's Day without a heart-shaped box of chocolates. Hmmmm, which one first?

Funny Helaina:

Helaina's been very curious lately about anything and everything. Lots of questions being asked (more than usual): How do people cook in a restaurant? If people are in a wheelchair is something wrong with their feet? Why do we blink? Why do I toot? How do you make oreos? Why do my teeth help me eat? Yikes, with my niece expecting her 2nd child this summer I'm waiting for the inevitable "How did the baby get in Beth's tummy?"

In school a few weeks ago the kids make a doctor's kit that included a stethoscope made out of yarn with a small plastic cup tied to it. Zoey was relaxing on a chair minding her own business after dinner when Helaina decided to give her a checkup. She takes her home-made stethoscope and presses it on Zoey's head between her ears and says "I have to check your p-flap. Now I know you not going to like it but I have to do it anyways." Jim and I cracked up. We'll have to tell Dr. Tatum that one next time she sees him.

We have one tired almost-five-year-old

With Helaina not taking official naps any more and having school 3 afternoons a week and therapy sessions 4 times a week at home, she is usually a tuckered out little gal by dinnertime. Lately she's been falling asleep around 4:00pm while waiting for Jim to get home. I usually try to prevent that because she becomes a cranky bear after waking up, but sometimes it's impossible so I let her cat-nap for about 30 minutes. Here are a few pics of her recent beauty naps. Love this one where she's sitting up.

"Mom, cover me up with a blanket" then 2 seconds later she's out.

She usually falls asleep when I go into the kitchen to start dinner.

All she needs is her favorite little pillow and it's all over.

Warm and snuggly underneath her Dora blanket.

Last weekend Helaina went to a birthday party at McDonalds for one of her school friends. It was 2 hours of pre-k gone wild. Happy Meals, balloons, gift bags, cake, ice cream and the huge multi-story climbing structure with slides - yikes, they were all non-stop for the entire time. Everyone left sweaty and tired.

The curvy slide, one of the kids' favorites.

Doesn't get much better than this for a bunch of 5-year olds.

Zoey jumped up on Helaina's legs the other morning to sit for a while. It made her morning. Helaina's so funny. When Zoey is purring Helaina will put her hand on Zoey's side to feel it and say "Mom, Zoey's hydrating." I said to her "You mean she's vibrating?" "Yah, that what I said!"

Funny Helaina:

After dinner one evening last week Helaina and Jim were in the family room while I cleaned up dishes in the kitchen. Here is the conversation I overheard that made me laugh so loud that I choked on the water I was drinking.

Helaina: Daddy, do you want to play Mom & Dad with me?
Jim: Sure, how do we play?

Helaina: I'm the Mom. You the Dad and you have to do everything I say.

(This is where I spit water all over the kitchen because I'm cracking up.)

Jim: Oh REALLY????? You've been listening to Mommy too much.

Oh my gosh, how funny is that.

Gong Hay Fat Choy (I think) ...

... or Happy Chinese New Year - welcome the Year of the Rabbit. Last week Helaina's teacher asked if I'd come to school on Chinese New Year to talk to the kids and teach them a little bit about the holiday. Sure, why not make it a party? When I ordered the cake from Wegmans I told the bakery gal what the cake was for (a kid's party) and gave her a piece of paper with "Gong Xi Fa Cai" written on it so they could duplicate it. (I realized later on that the cake has the Cantonese version of the greeting on it instead of Mandarin - oh well, the kids sure didn't care!) When Helaina saw the sprinkles and the frosting blob balloons I think she was ready to faint. "Wow! We eat that now?" No, it's for your school party. "Blast it all, dad blame it!" She got that phrase from a library book and now it's one of her favorite things to say.

Helaina and I made up some goody bags for her pals with mandarin orange cups (for good luck), fortune cookies, party blowers and red envelopes filled with chocolate coins. They were a HUGE hit with the kids.

After my chat with the kids about special foods prepared for the holiday, parades & dragon dances, good luck red, the number 8, dumplings, long noodles, chopsticks and whatever I could think of that held their interest (momentarily), it was time for cake. The kids always say a prayer before eating: "God bless our food, our friends and play. Watch over us each night and day. Thank you God for ..... cake!" And Mrs. M added "... and thank you God for China, Chinese people and our friend Helaina." Hearing those adorable little voices saying their prayer with clasped hands put a lump in my throat - absolutely precious.

Every time they have a party someone gets to blow out a candle. They sang "Happy Chinese New Year to you ..., " to the happy birthday tune and then Helaina got to blow out the candle.

We brought in Helaina's little Chinese hand drum and she showed everyone how to use it, then they passed it around and all got a turn.

As a thank you from the kids I had my own private concert with some of their favorite songs. This one was "heads, shoulders, knees and toes..."

Passing out the goody bags. They kept asking me about the red envelopes with the chocolate coins. "Really, they are coins we can eat?"

We went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant (where else). We had rice, general tso's chicken, beef & scallops, moo shu, egg rolls - it was a yummy feast.

Helaina having her "good luck" orange at the end of our meal. She's making a sour face even though the orange was unbelievably sweet.

For the holiday Helaina sported her red Kai-lan shirt, red nail polish and a few Chinese symbol tats on both hands. It was a fun day from start to finish.

Hope the Year of the Rabbit brings us all a little bit of luck and good fortune - make that a lot of luck and a lot of good fortune.