Mayflower.

I really can't get enough of this ginger-haired sugar plum of mine.  This little girl captured my heart that cold end-of-November day and my life has never been the same.

This summer Miss May's gone and grown right up...from a baby doll to a precious toddler in the blink of an eye.

There are so many things I want to remember about her--the way her eyes twinkle, the sound of her laugh, her perfectly natural curly hair, the smell of her vanilla hairspray.  The way she runs to her room right after breakfast to get "dessed" and then to my bathroom for her daily hair styling.

She plays with the water--on and off, on and off--or flips the light switch, fan, and shower light.  Her latest fetish is to suck on the water squirt bottle.

I want to hold on to this apple-cheeked precious forever.  She's growing too fast and there's nothing I can do to stop her.

With each dawn I miss the little girl she was yesterday with a deep down inside longing and yet how can I miss her when she's right there before my eyes?  I just have to hold on to the girl she is today and hope that time. slows. down.

My little Maylie Grace, my little shadow, my little Mama's girl mini-mother who is at one minute ordering her brothers around like she's the queen bee and vocalizing her favorite word {no} with the authority of a general, and the next moment is wrapping her arms around my neck and around my heart, kissing my cheeks, and saying sorry for anything and everything (even if you've stubbed your toe in an entirely different room or merely coughed).

Little May, I don't know what I ever did to deserve a princess like you.  You are my angel, my jewel, my icing on the cake.  I don't think I could love you more or my heart is liable to break with fullness.  And yet each day, I do.