How is she 6 Years Old?

[William Ephraim Black]

Aerie is 6.

Those words are both terrifying and miraculous at the same time.

Aerie is SIX years old. SIX. She is a true testament of love, devotion and absolute chaos. She goes from zero to 60 in a flash. She is fast, furious, funny and feral. She loves mud,  princesses, pirates, sticks, bugs, dresses, dirt, hair bows, shorts, flowers, motorcycles (damn it, Jake!) and rain.

She is everything you can imagine all balled up into a tiny frame with an angelic face. She is all Tiffany's stubbornness and Jake's temper. She is Embry's wit , Becca's creativity,  and Rachel's sharp tongue. Six years old. She loves cake, her cousins, her aunts and uncles, her siblings and "her" people. She's in Claire's K-3 Quileute language class and has superb pronunciation. She can cook a mean scrambled egg "all by myself!" and already has cross stitched the alphabet, "Just like Gramma Black did when she was 5". She is fire and she is ice. If she is angry at you, there will be a grudge holding period that will last until SHE decides you've been punished enough. If she loves you, you know it. If she doesn't, she sure isn't afraid to make it known. One minute she's climbing a tree, the next minute she's dressed like Princess Jasmine. 

For this birthday she wanted a cake with a motorcycle on top. Embry made it so. She was elated!  Embry can bake a mean cake and Aerie knows it. She has her entire family wrapped around her little finger and she knows how to keep them all exactly where she wants them. 

Her birthday gift from her siblings was a mini-quad fully equipped with knee pads, elbow pads, gloves and a unicorn helmet. This girl doesn't mess around. She was on that thing for hours. Thankfully the battery is exhausted at 3 hours and takes 10 to charge. HA!

She is my gift, my last child and the final piece of the heart that beats in my chest.