Aria is SIX

Aria - Happy 6th birthday! You are growing up so fast. My sweet little baby girl is now 6 years old! We celebrated your big day with your favorite activities - playing in the ball pit and throwing balls all over the house...

And driving your new remote controlled car as wild and crazy as possible (albeit, there wasn't a lot of room to work with inside the house)...

Your squeals of delight are truly contagious!

 

You enjoyed opening your gift - although I think you preferred the tissue paper over the contents of the bag.

For dessert, you had peanut butter cookies. You simply couldn't resist picking them right up to investigate. You didn't care one bit that your mama was trying to get a photo of you with your birthday cookies. Instead of eating them, you decided it would be much more entertaining to crumble them up and toss them onto the floor.

We celebrated your big day with a small family gathering a few days later. 

It started out with a festive game of "Watch your sisters launch the disks in the air". There were lots of happy squeals from all you girls as the disks shot straight up occasionally bouncing off the ceiling.

You enjoyed opening your cards and presents, ripping them open one by one and carefully inspecting each item.

Rose had even made a special card just for you.

Your presents were a huge hit! You loved driving your new wheel and tossing around the Hamster Kitties (little critters that are part hamster-part kitty from Gabby's Dollhouse - one of Kate's favorite shows). You thought that they made excellent balls and were perfect for throwing.

Later we all gathered around and sang a very peppy "Happy Birthday to You!" which you loved and requested an encore.

Soon it was time to bid a fond farewell to our guests with lots of "thank you"s and hugs for coming to the celebration.

Aria, you are such a joyful little girl, full of sugar and spice. You give THE best hugs with that super strong left arm of yours. There are few things sweeter than when you wrap your arm around a loved one's neck and pull them in close for a big squeeze.

But my oh my. You can sure be feisty! That lefty is known to give quite the pinch, hair pull or scratch on many an occasion. One must always be on the look out for that sneaky lefty. OUCH!

While you only have a few words, you are sure to make your wishes known. You are quite communicative and love to boss your siblings around. No, Owen can't sit there. No, Rose is in your way. Hey - the toy that Cole has must be given to you. Everyone in the household knows, what Aria wants, Aria gets. You are quite the queen bee.

Playing catch (or "fetch" as I like to call it), has been one of your favorite activities for a very long time. I think it started during a therapy session when I was trying to motivate you. And throwing sure is a big motivator! You love to throw whatever you can get your hands on. But what you love even more is when the item that you threw ends up in a hard to reach area that involves your poor mama having to squeeze behind railings or climb under tables to retrieve. You sure do think it's funny! And you have such a good arm, you often pitch the toy directly into the most hard-to-reach spot in the room.

This summer your bike riding skills really took off. You started propelling your bike all by yourself! Not just a few feet, but for significant distances that at times I had to run just to keep up with you. And now the 1/2 a mile loop we typically make down to the end of our road and back just isn't enough for you. The moment I start to turn around to head back home you insist that we keep on going. So off we go, across the road to the paved trail and beyond on our biking adventure.

 

You are our chip destroyer. That's right. You love getting your hands on a big bag of chips and squish, squish, squish its contents until all that is left is a bag of crumbs. It's quite cathartic for you and keeps you very focused on the task at hand, which is usually eating. You love to smash up chips during your meals. It's a surprisingly helpful distraction for when you are being a picky eater. 

Your top two favorite foods that you are almost always willing to eat are hummus (you devour it by the spoonful!) and yogurt. At one point, you had become so stinkin' picky that you'd only eat the peach flavored Oatly brand yogurt. We'd buy every container we could get our hands on. It was your absolute FAV! But as our luck would have it, it disappeared from the shelves. We'd drive from store to store and keep checking back, but sadly Peach Oatly has been discontinued. Thankfully you've gone back to an expanded selection of yogurts that you are willing to consume, but I don't think you will find another that you love as much as you did Peach Oatly.

You have a slight obsession with doors. You find them fascinating to open and close over and over again. You can easily entertain yourself for quite some time if a door is within reach. And when you grab my hand for support while you walk across the house, I can almost guarantee that our destination will be a door.

You work so hard every day to get stronger and more independent. It's not easy and takes so much effort for you, but we are very proud of all your hard work and I'm pretty sure you are very proud too! While at times it seems slow going, your hard work is paying off. Your legs have gotten so much stronger that they can now support your weight for several minutes at a time.  Just look at how tall you are standing all on your own.

Over Christmas break, you and your sisters were treated to your very first viewing of "Home Alone", a Christmas classic. I wasn't sure if any of you would enjoy it, but you three found it to be HILARIOUS! You were all rolling from laughter during those last 25 minutes of the film. It was funny just to watch you. Since then, you've watched your favorite parts dozens of times. You let out loud belly laughs when the burglars slip down the steps or get hit in the head with paint cans. But your all time favorite part is when the elderly neighbor arrives to help Kevin and smashes the burglars both in the head with a shovel. You ask for more and more as soon as your favorite part is over. You sure do love slapstick comedy!

 

Aria, you are such a joyful little soul. You are our ray of sunshine that finds happiness in the smallest of everyday occurrences. You are the sweetest girl with a smile that goes from ear to ear and a laugh that can be heard around the world. We are so blessed to celebrate you on your 6th birthday. A very happy birthday to you, Aria!