Jelly Bean is My Wonder Woman

Welcome back. I took a major hiatus for security reasons. Sadly, we have family members who would do our family, most specifically our children, harm. This blog will now be under password protection moving forward.

Today we are celebrating Bean’s 5th birthday. We are celebrating one of my fighting heroes. I was inspired to reopen this blog because of her self-designed cake. This just sums up my little one to a T.

  

See that Halloween frame? She wants to share the rings with her friends.

See that pink icing in her name? She said, “Pink, please!” and then “a huge thank you!” to the man who did it for her.

See those Wonder Woman costumes? She chose them because “Wonder Women is my favorite super hero. We are SO alike.”

That’s my daughter.

She was hard fought – she surprised us all when her pregnancy started just a week or two after my doctor told me over the phone that I needed a few tests and that pregnancy most likely needed to wait.

It continued through a pregnancy with words like "failure" and "high risk" and "get ready for the worst". Bed rest, 30 weeks of vomiting, early contractions, specialized tests, and pamphlets about raising a disabled child. Being prepared for the worst right before giving birth. Being rushed back to the hospital with death-rates of infection for me. Full story here.

She has been to four schools already and still speaks highly of them each. She makes friends almost everywhere she goes and is clear about who isn’t welcome in her space. She loves petting dogs, carefully asking for permission first. She is rough & tumble and rocks princess dresses.

I was reminded of how lucky I am to have her in my life and what a role model she can be for me. On Wednesday I was accidentally fed something that I am highly intolerant against. I spent the night in agony, vomiting for hours. There were times I even laughed to myself, alone of the bathroom floor as I remembered how I was in the exact same position exactly five years ago, waiting to give birth to my baby. Hoping she was healthy. Now, knowing how healthy she has become.

Then in my weakened state, the strep I carry broke out as did the light virus I was most likely successfully fighting off beforehand. Three trips to urgent care, waves of fever and fever breaking, an allergic reaction, and an entire new set of treatments and I finally feel that I am headed towards more health.

It was like the light version of her birth. Without being worried about her survival. Instead, she is not just surviving, she is thriving.

She is Wonder Woman Steinbach.