Happy Birthday Laika Juniebelle

Today marked Laika's fifth completed journey around the sun.

Laika is learning to read and write.  She is excited about kindergarten and totally finished preschool.  As we left her end-of-year barbeque I felt a weight in my gut when I told her, "That's it.  You will never be back in preschool.  You just move forward.  Next Kindergarten, and then Grade 1, but never preschool again."  Oh man.  It's so hard.  Again this year they sent a CD full of pictures home from preschool, and again there was a picture of our little girl with a tarantula crawling up her shirt.

For the past 7 years we have lived 300 metres from a free waterpark - complete with waterslide.  Leif has never gone down this slide on his own - until yesterday after Laika did it 10 times by herself first to prove to him that it was fun and safe.  "Come on Leif, it will be ok.  Your head won't get wet!" the same encouragement happens at bedtime when the kids need to run downstairs to put on PJs.  "Leif, don't worry, I'll go first and turn the lights on for you."

Laika is determined and talented, she's been riding her bike without training wheels for a year now, and she is fast and careful.  She can swing across monkey bars that are higher than what I can reach and she continually tries things that are new.  She is stubborn and feisty!  She can climb the tree outside our house and is quickly 30 feet up.  She plays well with big boys and little girls.  She can dress her little sister all by herself.  She changes her own outfit at least 4 times a day.  She sings pretty songs that she makes up on the spot and she invents new words to make rhymes.  She still wants to marry Leif and tells him once a day how handsome he is.

Laika is an 'imaginator' and tells many interesting stories.  Her favourite is that she wasn't allowed to play at preschool.  Apparently they brought out a special desk for her every day and while the other kids were playing she was busy working on 'math equations', 'science projects', 'reports' and 'homework'.  I'm not allowed to ask her teachers about this though (they might have forgotten about it).

Laika is a precious, beautiful person and today she is five years old.

We love you Laika.