Dear little lovely,

I can’t believe you’re five years old!  Neither can you, by the way.  The jury is still out on when you’re going to stop telling people you’re four-and-a-half.  But although I’d love for you to stay my little bunny forever, there’s no getting around it – you’re growing up way too fast.

You’re chock-a-block full of personality.  (No change there.)  Your favorite thing in the entire world is mermaids.  If a good witch came around and offered to turn you into a maiden of the sea, you’d take the deal in a second and never look back.  Anything mermaid-themed or mermaid-adjacent is fine by you.  You still love The Little Mermaid – over a year now, and that movie hasn’t gotten old.  And you still wear your mermaid costume from last Halloween around the house on any random Tuesday, because why not?  (You’re in good company.  Your best friend, S, changes into a ball gown and tiara every day as soon as she gets home from school.  You two kindred spirits really found each other.)

In addition to mermaids, in no particular order, you love: pink; Disney Junior; waffles; sea lions; the splash pad; tutus; books; Finding Dory; Batgirl; your almost-life-sized stuffed Tiger, Shere Khan; Sofia the First; your Color Wonder markers; performance art; Princess Jasmine; baking with Mommy; and snuggling with Daddy.  You also love your little brother, although you wish he would stay out of your room and keep his sticky little hands off your stuff.

You’re very into gender roles right now, and you can be quite rigid about them.  You insist that any person or animal with eyelashes is a girl, and pointing out that Daddy and Nugget have eyelashes does not move you at all.  You refuse to wear pants because “girls don’t wear pants.”  (S told her mom that you don’t own pants.  I had to explain that you do, in fact, own a pair of jeans and a pair of pink cords, but you won’t wear either of them.)  You’ve also become enraged on more than one occasion because Mommy or Daddy read the “wrong” gender in a book (a.k.a. the unicorn is a boy according to the story, but you know better).

You have the heart and soul of a performer.  You are always dreaming up your next musical number, and your entire life is basically a Broadway show.  We often find ourselves watching in amused awe as you prance around the playground, belting out Disney standards (often edited to be about whatever you want them to be about today) and waving your arms to your fans.  Of course, sometimes you can still be shy.  When the “Chipmunks” performed “This Land is Your Land” at the camp talent show, you hid in the back row.

You’re my bright, brave, beautiful girl, my greatest adventure and my dream come true.  Happy birthday, bunny.

Love, Mom