Say goodbye to being little

Maddy's car seat was sitting by itself on a chair in the rain when I picked her up today. Oops. Luckily, my daycare provider (the best in the world by the way) offered up every device made by man to strap a kid down inside a car. We settled on a slightly used backless blue booster seat. Maddy, who is already one of the most animated humans that I've ever met, became overwhelmed with joy. True unabashed joy. Looking at her in the rear view mirror, I saw a little girl where a tiny girl used to sit. I decided it was time let go of her car seat, so we popped off the highway and bought a booster seat of her very own. In the 5 &7/12ths years that she's been on this earth, she has never exhibited the level of happiness that came pouring out of her on the rest of the drive home. "Look mommy, I can put my cup here! And I can sleep with my head in the head rester! AND I can reach Charly's jacket!! ANDDDD I can touch you!! Mommmy, I can touch you with two fingers now!!!" she squeaked while trying to lunge forward in order to explore all the new possibilities that her new thrown granted. Maybe it was because she's yearned for the booster seat freedom that Charly has possessed for years now that she exhibited such overwhelming gratitude, or maybe it was because she came upon the realization that she is saying goodbye to being little. Regardless of her motivations, perhaps I shouldn't try so hard to figure out why she was so exuberant, but rather focus on holding on to the smiles that she planted on everyones face who has come in contact with her since the buying of the seat. Hopefully she'll be this excited when she says goodbye to the booster seat, I'll be sure to let you know in about ten years....