The 4th and Final Birthday as an only child

The 4th and Final Birthday as an only child...
So... Unbelievably my baby is 4 years old, on Wednesday April 7th Emily turned another year older. Now forgive me for being Cliché, But MAN DOES TIME FLY!!! We really turned one DAY INTO A WEEK CELEBRATION. The weekend before we took her to the World Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium as promised, on Monday out to dinner cause "her birthday was coming soon", Tuesday she got to stay up late and eat extra cookies, and Wednesday she got extra morning snuggles, a few presents to open (with the most special presents from her aunt meemee, Uncle Adam, & Cousins: Andrew, Ashton and Ally. Which she is still playing with everyday!), cheese crisp for breakfast, ramen noodles and another cheese "crip" for lunch with Gatorade and carrots and ranch. When Michael got home from work Emily finished opening presents and was surprised from a knock on the door to be greeted by her dad and a big girl princess bike with training wheels, tassels, and a backpack on the handle bars complete with water bottle. Over Birthday dinner we completed our party plans. So, Michael had already made arrangements for her birthday she requested a princess pizza party, with games to play, a icecream cake with strawberries and banana, and friends to share it with. Anyone who knows Eme knows that she always has known exactly she wants, and when she wants it. We did decide that there wasn't any harm in "going all out" for her last birthday as our only child... Well I guess the only harm was the stress I caused myself in worrying about making sure she had everything she wanted to make a memorable day, It could’ve been worse and WE THINK IT WAS WORTH IT. Now, no mistake she seemingly had a wonderful time and raved about how much fun she had and of course loved having her friends and (a half of a slice) pizza for lunch. However, she didn't eat a bite of her $40 specialty cake (her dad ate her piece before it melted) while she was more excited about the 3 new outfits she got than any of the other 50 gifts she got (all of them very cool by the way), and could care less today about the 2640 tickets converted into a ton of "I gotta have it prizes" that her dad helped her obtain (also as far as being "worth it" I still think he had just as much fun as Emily, they were so freakin' cute together running around like crazy little partners. I had equally as much fun just seeing them together, he really is AMAZING), prizes which included a $5 princess clock that probably cost us $30 in tokens LOL ... Wow, so the reality set in when I remembered how much different parents and kids are and what we think would be fun/important to them in comparison to what actually means something to them. They are just so simple and so often parents make them out to be so complicated, In the end I still say it was all worth it I got to see a few people I haven't seen in a while, one of which I couldn't get enough of she always finds her way into my life at the right moments. Her children are beautiful and insanely grown! Junior and Ashlyn are just sweet as can be and defiantly their mothers children.. Love them, Love their Momma, Gina thanks a million, for still being you. Hey, dawning on me at this very moment, maybe its just preparation for our next baby to know what is really important to us, and for them as children: simple, wonderful, sweet children (and to do what you can while you can, I’ve learned from my sister life defiantly changes with more babies). It’s just funny what you learn as a parent with each experience. I want to thank the people close to me for all they have taught me, to help me be a better mommy. And thank you to my amazing Soon to be husband for always being so open and providing so endlessly and loving us so perfectly, so wonderfully and so completely. Emily and Michael I LOVE YOU BOTH WITH EVERYTHING I AM!