Happy Birthday, Cora!

I'm sitting here, kids asleep, a slight buzzing of excitement coursing through my stomach and chest every few seconds. Tomorrow is Cora's fifth birthday.  Five.Years. Old.  How did this happen?  How did my tiny baby turn into this lovely little girl?  It's happened before my eyes, all the moments stretching into all the long days, the seasons and years soaring by.

This little hilarious, silly, loving, exasperating, strong-willed and amazing little girl...

Sometimes my heart feels like it can't contain my love.  This girl went and made me a mother and turned everything I'd ever known upside down in the most perfect way. 

She lives with joy and shares it with contagious abandon. She loves deep and hard and I am so blessed that she shares that love with me.

Happy, happy birthday, my sweet girl. I couldn't be more proud of you.