give me FIVE

Five reasons why I love this beautiful child....

1.  She is brilliant.  I am talking weird, talks to herself, mind always on kind of brilliant.  Scary brilliant.  Dave brilliant.  She asks so many questions and really listens to the answers {which is why I always send her to Dave for answers}.  I can already tell you that she will be smarter than me.  And I am OK with that.  She seriously remembers so many things.  We were cleaning out the play room the other day and she knew where every toy came from, who it was from, and when it was received...seriously, every. single. toy.  I told you, scary brilliant....

 2.  She is fearless.  She will try anything.  When we went to Sea World before Christmas, she was EXACTLY tall enough to ride The Steel Eel.  My stomach instantly got knots in it just thinking about riding that roller coaster.  Aubrey looked beyond nervous...BUT...Adelyn was freaking thrilled!  I reluctantly rode it with her, and seriously had to MAKE HER PUT HER ARMS DOWN because I was so nervous her skinny little ass would fly right out of that coaster car.  I kept my eyes shut most of the way up, but I could tell she was diggin' it..."I can see EVERYTHING from up here, Mom!!".  When we finished and Dave asked her how it was, she enthusiastically replied, "It....was....AWESOME!!"  She definitely brings Aubrey out of her shell a little by doing things first.

 3.  She is opinionated.  She has opinions about her clothes and her hair and everything, really.  Although she is opinionated, she usually has reasons for her opinions.  I can assure you those opinions will lead to conflict with teachers....let's hope for the best.

 4.  She is a talker. She was the earliest talker of our three, having full on conversations around 18 months old {hell, Blake is 28 months old and still doesn't talk}.  She hasn't stopped since...if she doesn't have someone to talk to, she will happily talk to herself.  or her stuffed animals.  or her Barbies.  or....you get the picture.  With all that talking, she usually has some pretty amazing things to say.  She is also LOUD.  She just has such a loud voice.  I assume that's a middle child thing, just so she can feel heard...maybe?

 5.  She has an amazing free spirit.  She makes up songs to sing all the time, she wears so many different colors at the same time, she dresses up in a gazillion different outfits each day, she loves pretending and writing and drawing and coloring, and she is looking forward to the day when she can dye her hair pink {God, please let her realize that her hair color is AMAZING and it would be a shame to ruin such a beautiful creation}.

I have to remind myself on occasion that the reasons I get frustrated with this precious girl are the very reasons why I love her as much as I do.  She is who she is, and that will never change.  I think it is important, as parents, to allow our children to be who they are.  To embrace their strengths, even if they drive us nuts.  Or more importantly, even if they don't match our vision of what our child should be like {with that said, there are limits.  I will NOT allow her to dye her hair while she is living in this house.  I mean LOOK at it!  OMG.  It's amazing for an adult, let alone a 5 YEAR OLD}.  She is one-of-a-kind, my Adelyn.  I love this crazy little redhead more than she'll ever know.