5 Years Old

Charlotte turned five yesterday. We celebrated the occasion with an afternoon at the coast. First we had delicious sandwiches and pizza at Panini in Nye Beach (quite possibly the best restaurant in Newport unless you’re desperate to eat seafood). Then we surprised her with a trip to the Newport Candy Shoppe where we gave her two dollars and told her she could buy anything she wanted. She has a major sweet tooth, but we’re usually pretty strict about limiting sweets and almost never let our kids eat candy, so this was a major thing. Charlotte’s eyes about popped out of her head as she ogled all the taffy, Jelly Beans, gummy candies, and suckers. She was in heaven.

At the beach, there was fun with bull kelp and lots of splashing in the very cold surf. At the end of the day, we threw two filthy kids in the bathtub and sent them off to bed exhausted.

Charlotte will start full-day kindergarten on Tuesday, so basically my baby isn’t a baby anymore. She even learned to ride a two-wheel bike without assistance a couple weeks ago. She still loves dirt, cuddling, bugs, princesses, picture books, sugary things, purple things, all fruits and vegetables, our cat, her brother, silly jokes that have been told a hundred times, water activities, and staying up way past her bedtime. At her checkup the other day, the doctor told us that she’s still in the 25th percentile for height and weight, but even though she’s small, the girl has grit. And we still love her to pieces.