{"id":355,"date":"2013-01-11T00:04:15","date_gmt":"2013-01-11T05:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/fathertime\/?p=355"},"modified":"2013-01-11T00:04:15","modified_gmt":"2013-01-11T05:04:15","slug":"five-by-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/?p=355","title":{"rendered":"Five by Five"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Five\"<\/a>I started this blog a year ago with a post<\/a> on Lily’s birthday reflecting on how much Hannah had grown in the four years since Lily was born. We celebrated Lily’s fifth birthday last week with a family dinner and, the next day, Lily’s first party with friends (gymnastics at Let It Shine). It’s great seeing her play with her friends from preschool. They see each other five days a week and then go to each other’s birthday parties what seems to be every other weekend. It’s going to be hard this summer when Lily and her friends go their separate ways to different kindergartens around town.<\/p>\n

Since my post about Lily’s fourth birthday was mostly about Hannah, I’ll focus this one on Lily. First, five things I love about my youngest:<\/p>\n

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  1. I love to hear what she’s thinking when her sister isn’t around. Hannah says more by breakfast than I do all day, so it can be hard for Lily to get a word in. But there’s so much going on in her head, so much she sees and hears in the world around her. I love finding out what deep thoughts she has in her little head.<\/li>\n
  2. I love to watch her play by herself. She received a dollhouse for Christmas a couple of years ago and since then has been building her collection of dolls and furniture. After her birthday this year, she’s found herself with a well-stocked house for her little doll family. She can spend an hour or more playing with these dolls, making up stories and rearranging the furniture. It’s charming to see her entertain herself so easily.<\/li>\n
  3. I love that she takes soccer so seriously. Not too seriously, mind you, but she’s night-and-day from her sister when it comes to athletics. Hannah would spend her soccer practices (and games for that matter) chatting with friends and picking wildflowers. Lily puts her game face on when practice starts, follows all her coach’s directions, and, perhaps most surprisingly, handles adversity with a determination to overcome. She doesn’t handle adversity around the house quite so well most days! But on the field, she’s a real athlete.<\/li>\n
  4. I love that she has a best friend. There’s a little girl at her preschool who has been in her class for a year or two now. They get along like peas and carrots. I hear about her friend all. the. time. When we were planning Lily’s birthday party, we knew all it needed to be a success was that one little friend. Hannah never had a best friend like that when she was younger. It’s adorable to see how Lily hugs and plays with her buddy.<\/li>\n
  5. Maybe it’s obvious from the above, but I love that Lily is her own little person. I know it can be hard to be the kid sister, always trying to keep up with the big sister. And there are a few ways that she and Hannah are very much alike. But Lily has her own personality, crafted by God just for her. I love getting to see her change and grow and become herself.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And five things I pray for my little girl this year:<\/p>\n

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    1. I pray that she stays healthy and strong.<\/li>\n
    2. I pray that she learns to control her temper. (See above note about adversity.)<\/li>\n
    3. I pray that she continues learning how to treat her friends with kindness.<\/li>\n
    4. I pray that her faith in God grows and deepens.<\/li>\n
    5. I pray that I keep learning to be a better and better father to her.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Lily’s a wonderful, amazing little girl, and I’m so thankful she’s my daughter. And I made sure to tell her that the other day on her birthday!<\/p>\n

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      Image: “Untitled<\/a>,” totodenamur, Flickr (CC)<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I started this blog a year ago with a post on Lily’s birthday reflecting on how much Hannah had grown in the four years since Lily was born. We celebrated Lily’s fifth birthday last week with a family dinner and, the next day, Lily’s first party with friends (gymnastics at …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,5,53,80],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-birthdays","tag-growing-up","tag-little-sister","tag-preschool","column","twocol","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":358,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions\/358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}