Growing Up

This weekend is a special occasion.  One of my dearest friends has a daughter who is turning 6 years old.   It seems like just yesterday I visited her in the hospital with my almost 3 week old daughter.  Time sure does fly!  Happy birthday E!

That means that almost 3 weeks ago (during my hiatus from my blog and Facebook) my daughter turned 6.  I can't believe how fast time is going by!  It seems like just yesterday my daughter came home from the hospital.

For my daughter's birthday this year we decided to get a pass to Busch Gardens for the rest of the year for the entire family (and Sea World for the kids and I).  So a couple days before her birthday we went to Busch Gardens for the day.  Daughter and I were all about seeing the animals and Hubby and Son were all about the rides.  We all had a great day that was topped off by a visit to my Uncle's house for dinner and some catching up.  Needless to say the day was a success!

The last few years, it has become very apparent that my daughter LOVES animals.  Just about any animal in fact.  She can see a snake and say, "Awwww, it's so cute."  (That is SO not how Mommy & Daddy feel about snakes!)  The animals she's most fascinated with right now however are parrots and dolphins.  That's why it was really cool, when she got this sign for her birthday from Grandpa and Grandma.

Daughter's name has been removed from pic for safety reasons

This love of sea live is also the reason we added the Sea World pass.  It's also instigated something else lately.  My son does everything in his power to not write (a boy thing I've been told), but my daughter has a new-found love of writing, in particular about animals (and movies about animals such as Winter).  Sometimes she will copy from a book and sometimes she will draw pictures of her own and then ask an adult how to write the words she wants to go with the pictures.  She's even phonetically sounded out some words on her own as a surprise gift to me (it's so cute when it's technically spelled wrong but I know she spelled it correct phonetically).

I love seeing my daughter grow up and become a "big girl."  I pray I will be able to see her as a young woman and as a mother some day.  I just kinda wish it wouldn't happen this fast.

I bet E's mom would agree.