Five

I can remember standing in the kitchen at our old house in the city, when our fourth child was a about 12 months old, and asking Mark, "Do you think five kids would be crazy?"

I can remember having that feeling that I wanted one more, that our family wasn't complete.

I come from a small family, I only have one brother. Part of me always wanted more siblings, a bigger gang, other kids to hang out with, to play with.

Maybe that is what motivated me to want a larger family myself. But I also knew I had a lot of love to give, the kind of love that could stretch a bit further and wrap itself around another baby.

When we had our fourth child some of the people we knew were quite shocked. A woman who I vaguely knew came up to me in the playground and actually told me off for having another one! But for me the desire to have another baby was so strong that I dreamt about it and thought about it all the time. One day during this period I was walking along the street and saw something shiny on the ground, a green bottle cap.

I picked it up & I saw it had the number 5 & a love heart printed on the other side. ( I still have that bottle cap in my treasure drawer.) It wasn't long before I was pregnant with our own number five, she was definitely meant to be.

We moved to Daylesford when I was five months pregnant. I remember before we left, telling Charlotte's teacher that we were having another baby and her saying in a shocked voice, "Oh Rebeka!", as if I had announced I was going to do something terribly wicked. It was a relief to move to a community that was more relaxed and supportive. Somewhere our big family wasn't so unusual, where we could be ourselves.

And our baby came and she was beautiful and loved.

We've watched her grow up in our sunny garden, splash in puddles in the winter, fall in love with the moon. She has got up to mischief, drawn on the walls, cut her own hair, climbed trees, driven us all crazy being a cat called Sophie (who meows incessantly). She has given us so much fun and love and so many laughs. She's the girl with toys called Johnny Moo Moo's, Raincloud, Daynkoo & Blueberry, she's the girl we love.

Well today our baby is having a birthday. Yep, she is a big girl and as she says today she is Really Five. We woke to her laughing in her room as she had found her long, long Rainbow Snake curled up on her bed.

The kids gathered round her in the hallway as she came out sleepy and warm and we all cuddled and wished her Happy Birthday. It was so sweet, children are so naturally warm and loving. We love to celebrate each other in our house and birthdays are a festival.

Rosie had the Best Party Ever at Funbugs on Sunday, surrounded by her beautiful friends. Tonight we will share cake and pressies and celebrate our beautiful Rosabella.

I can't imagine a life without our crazy, passionate, colourful, loving, whacky, adventurous, creative gorgeous girl. I'm so glad my lucky number is five xo