my forever baby

i must interrupt my series of month-old posts (the goal of catching up is looking to be a rather fruitless endeavor) because today is a special day.

today, my baby turns four.

remember my baby?

hi, baby.

and when i call her my baby, this is how i see her.  this is how she will forever look to me.  we even had a discussion about it today.  it went something like this:

lauren: mommy, i'm a big girl today.
mommy: you are?  how come?
lauren: because i'm four today!
mommy: that is a big girl number! so are you a big girl or a little girl now?
lauren: big girl.
mommy: are you a big girl or a baby?
lauren: big girl.
mommy: but, aren't you my baby?
lauren: no, jonah is!
mommy: but, aren't you still my baby too?
lauren: yes!
mommy: so you're a big girl to everyone else, but a baby to mommy, right?
lauren: yes.

whew, i'm glad we got that cleared up.

because no matter how big this girl gets...

and it really does seem like she turned into a big girl overnight...

she will still be forever my baby.  it's just how it is with this one.

and i fervently hope her love of twirly dresses sticks around for a good long time, too.  because i just can't think of the day when she won't want to twirl anymore.

so i'm holding on tight to precious today.  because today, she loves girly dresses, loves wearing her hair up "fancy", loves rapunzel, loves her pillow, loves her siblings, loves her mommy and her daddy, loves to sneak into our bed sometime in the night so that i wake up to find her snuggled up next to me in the morning (i not-so-secretly love that too), and loves being her sweet, sassy, spunky, four-year-old self.  this girl does crazy things to my heart and i thank God so much for adding her to our family.

happy four years old, my baby!