My beautiful girl

Nine years ago today I was in the midst of contractions that would eventually lead to the birth of my first child.  I was feeling excited, impatient and more than a little nervous.  Miss V decided to take her time getting out so wasn't actually born until almost 10am the following morning.  This at least gave us plenty of time to finally settle on a name if this unknown little person happened to be a girl.   I was pretty much the first out of my friends and siblings to have any children so the whole baby thing quite a novelty to me.  We had trouble with breastfeeding at first but two and a half years later this had morphed into trouble with weaning.  V was a pretty headstrong but entertaining little toddler.  When she was four, V became a big sister and this has been a role she has taken very seriously ever since. 

 

 

At almost five and after much anticipation, she started at a small (only 60 or so children) K-2 school and loved it from pretty much the first day. 

She especially loved anything creative such as singing and dancing or drawing or painting. 

 

 

In kindergarten she was the smallest child in the whole school (an honour she wasn't entirely pleased with) so was chosen (or her outline was) to feature in a mural painted on the school's 'welcome wall'.

 

In Year 1 she started playing the recorder and learnt to swim!

 

 

 

She adored her teacher in Year 2 and was very sad to part from her and from her friends at the end of the year.  She was unable to attend the same school as most of the other kids and instead went to our local school where she was re-united with children she had known from playgroup days.  This is V on her first day at the new school:

 

 

 

The first year at the new school was a little rough but now V has a new best friend, H (won't post a photo although they are very cute together) and is again participating in the things she loves such as singing and dancing.  She also started learning Kung Fu which was great in helping her to regain her confidence.  She has also been very proud this year to have her little brother at school with her. 

Thinking back on my expectations of parenthood, I feel like I really struck gold with V.  We get on each other's nerves a bit as we have very similar natures but I do admire her fiestiness (even if it drives me crazy at times).  I love the way she takes care of J and also takes responsibility for making things nice around the house.  She loves animals, especially our old dog, Mollie, and is a (mostly) devoted and entertaining friend.  For her birthday tomorrow night, she has asked us to take her and her friends to a restaurant for dinner which like a very grown up thing to be doing. the ear piercing last weekend also highlighted to me how grown up she is becoming.  I hope she has a wonderful birthday!