Tomorrow my baby turns 6! In honor of the end of her 5th
year and the beginning of number six, Mom asked me to write a year in review
Random 5 Friday post. It’s been a great year
and Campbell has grown into a more amazing and fun child every day of this year.
It was hard to pick just five
highlights. But here are the five days I
selected as the most notable from Campbell’s fifth year!

August 14: Campbell’s
first day of Kindergarten
Campbell was beyond excited to start “big kid” all-day
school! And she looked both big and tiny
as I walked her to her room on this first day!
So big as she practically ran to her room she was so excited, with her
big girl backpack on. And yet so little
compared to the bigger kids – and also compared to her big girl backpack!
We couldn’t have hoped for a better start to Campbell’s
formal education! Her teacher, Mrs.
Everman, was truly the best we could have asked for! She and Campbell started
bonding from day one and I think will truly miss each other next year. (This is
where Adam would say that I will miss Mrs. Everman just as much and that is
very true! Thanks to hours spent in her room gluing gingerbread houses and
helping with parties, plus the added connection of having her daughter on my
track team, Mrs. Everman and I bonded, too!)
At the end of the year for Teacher Appreciation week we sent in a tote
full of classroom supplies and in the note I sent along with it, I told Mrs.
Everman what I firmly believe to be true: When Campbell is my age and she is
telling her little girl about when she was in school Mrs. Everman will stand
out in her memory as one of her favorite and best teachers ever!

September 17: My
first day at Centre College
While it may seem a little weird to pick my first day at a
new job as a high point in my child’s year, it truly has changed our lives – most
importantly Campbell’s – for the better. I said goodbye to the two hours a day
I used to spend in the car commuting to work.
I am now there in the mornings to get her up and ready for school. I was able to walk her in to school almost
every day – a walk that changed from early on when she clung to my hand and
hugged me goodbye to a walk where she led the way and dove into her room full
of new friends with a quick glance and wave over her shoulder.
Changing jobs has allowed me to be a much more present
Mother. It allowed me to go to school for parties and to help with those
gingerbread houses and other projects – priceless experiences with Campbell that
I would have missed at my old job.
Campbell literally jumped for joy when I changed jobs. So, my new job deserves a spot on this list
because it has profoundly impacted my child’s life and our relationship this
year – and will continue to do so for years to come.

October 3: Campbell’s
first turn reading the bedtime story
Campbell started bringing books home to read to us at night
just a few weeks into school. Early on
they were typical “See Spot run” sort of books that are kind of hard to actually
call a book. But it took no time at all
for Campbell to leave those early books behind for books with actual sentences
on each page. On this night she read our bedtime story all by herself for the
first time! I cried. I had a little
reader in my house now and it was exciting and bittersweet. I kept thinking: “How on earth is my baby old
enough to read?”
As proud as I was then, I had no idea how well she would be
reading in just a few short months. This is where I have to brag that Campbell
was reading level 15 books by the end of the year. The kindergarten target is to be reading at
level 4-5! Campbell comes from a family
of readers – on both sides. Of all the
things she could decide to do – outside of maybe deciding to hurdle down the
road – loving to read is the hobby of choice that makes my heart sing most! Now
she reads everything – signs, commercials, the mail – everything! She is
currently plugging her way through one of the Fancy Nancy chapter books by herself! It’s amazing and I can’t wait to share a long
list of my favorite books with her very soon!

January 23:
Inauguration
In January our little family took a trip to DC for Barack
Obama’s Second Inaugural. I decided four
years ago when we went without baby Campbell that if he won a second term, I
was taking her this time around. Last time we watched the swearing in from a TV
and the parade from an office window. It was a cool experience but this time,
thanks to an amazing friend of mine made during my last Toll Fellows Program
before switching jobs (a big thank you to Florida state Sen. Alan Williams!),
we got tickets to the Swearing-In Ceremony.
I hope that Campbell will remember the excitement we all had that morning
as we sat in amazing seats just 400 yards or so away from the podium as a piece
of history unfolded in front of us. I
think she will – the trip seems to have made a big impression on her and she is
a huge Obama fan (it was one of her first words).
In fact, just a few weeks ago as we toured Boone Hall near
Charleston, we were in the last of the slave cabins where the story of slavery
and civil rights ends with the swearing in of the first black President,
Campbell turned to me and said “It’s a great thing that we elected him with our
history.” A very poignant comment that is
not at all out of the norm for Campbell as she is an old soul at times who sees
things and feels things on a much higher level. But she followed that statement
up by thanking me, again, for taking her to see his inauguration. I think it is safe to say that this day and
the rest of the DC trip will stand out in her memory – and definitely mine – as
one of the coolest things we ever got to do together!

February 14: The
Wedding of Q and U
I’m not sure where she gets it. I was a tomboy. I never really liked Barbies or other
dolls. I played in the creeks and went
frog gigging as a kid. I didn’t play
princess or dress-up. Campbell already
has more colors of nail polish in her bathroom drawer than I think I’ve owned
my whole life! So, while I’m not sure where my extremely girly-girl came from,
it was no surprise when she came home from school and announced that being
picked to be Q, the bride, in the wedding at school was “a dream come true!”
The wedding was a very cute to-do that fittingly happened on
Valentine’s Day. Campbell and I had a
blast the days preceding the wedding making her veil and bouquet. She was the picture of poise as she walked
down the aisle to her groom. She clearly
took her role as the bride very seriously – though not seriously enough to
stand any closer than three feet away from the groom!

May 29: Kayaking at
Kiawah
I think this recent experience with Campbell is a fitting
capstone to her fifth year as it truly illustrates how much she has grown in
the last 12 months. She’s reading, she’s riding a bike, she’s making
thought-provoking statements on slavery.
She’s a big girl now. And that
means our family can do more adventurous things together – like our first
kayaking expedition. I could really mention this whole vacation as an example
of this new stage of life with Campbell but I picked this event because I’ve
been looking forward to this experience in particular since our last trip to
Kiawah when Adam and I went kayaking just the two of us because she wasn’t big
enough. While we were out we had the
amazing experience of seeing dolphins swimming within just a couple feet of our
boat and I decided then that as soon as Campbell was old enough I wanted to go
kayaking again with her so she could see dolphins. It’s been two years since that last trip and
she was big enough and she saw a family of dolphins and consistently says that kayaking
trip was her favorite part of what I would argue is the best family vacation we’ve
had thus far!
I can hardly wrap my head around the fact that the little
bundle of joy we first welcomed into the world is already six! I swear I was
just pregnant yesterday! And while a
part of me is sad to see her so big and misses the sweet little baby I could
hold in one arm or the chubby, precocious toddler with the wild, curly hair that
made us laugh all the time, its experiences like this kayaking trip that remind
me that the best is yet to come. I’ve
been blessed with an amazingly smart, funny and kind little girl and as she
grows I will be able to share more and more incredible adventures with
her.
This year has seen a lot of milestones pass and has been
marked by dozens of memorable experiences – we’ve made memories I will cherish
forever. But I can’t help sitting here on the eve of Campbell’s sixth birthday
excited about what the future holds! We
are already planning our next and biggest adventure to-date – a trip to France
and Italy next summer. So, here’s to
year #6 and all that it has in store!

{If you pop over here you'll find Dotti's post linking up to Friday Finds.}