Riley is SIX!!!!!!!!!!

My baby is SIX! How did that happen? Seriously, I feel like a broken record sometimes because I say it every year, but I really do not know what happened to the last six years!

Riley is truly the daughter I dreamed of during the long struggle to get pregnant and all through the 9 months of waiting to hold her in my arms.

Let me brag for a minute!

- She is beautiful, with the thickest curliest hair of anyone I know. Since she is letting me wash it now, I have let her grow it, and when wet, it reaches almost to her bottom. She gets so many comments on her hair- constantly...I hope it stays that way. She has gorgeous eyes with long, dark eyelashes. She has a beautiful smile and smiles a lot!

- She is brilliant. Seriously, this child is just amazing...she is leaps above the rest of her classmates. She is already reading at a 2nd (and now probably even higher) grade level. She is the only one in her class to go into the 1st grade class during reading time. She received a special mention in her school newsletter (and the only kindergartner) this week for scoring so high on her MAP tests. And it is not only reading- yesterday Todd and I discovered that they are learning graphing in Math class.....wow!

- She is caring and kind. She is an awesome big sister- just the best. She makes Annie laugh better than anyone else. She hugs and kisses her so often that it makes Annie mad, but Riley keeps hugging and kissing. She shares all of her toys with her- even her Barbies. It is the cutest thing to watch them play Barbies together. And she loves to read to Annie, too.

- She is well behaved. The girls at work just roll their eyes, but Riley has NEVER had a time-out in school. NEVER. Of course, she has had them at home, but never in school. She has received stickers on EVERY.SINGLE.CALENDAR. day this year at school.

Now, I know she is not perfect, and there are plenty of blogs I can write about the things that Riley does not do so well....but today she is six years old and it is a day to celebrate her....and so I will!!!