She's Five! (and, a minor rant about toys)

I can hardly believe that five years ago today (well, tonight, actually), my beautiful Sadie made her way into this world. Where has the time gone?!?!? I woke her up this morning by singing Happy Birthday, and the look on her face was just priceless. She said "I'm five! I'm five! I'm finally five!" as if she had been waiting her whole life to be five. I hope it isn't a letdown!

Tonight, we'll have our family celebration for her (her 'real' party is next weekend), and give her the gifts we have. Finding a gift for her was pretty difficult this year. Once I decided what I wanted to get her (a bigger set of Legos than the current, starter set she has now), I had a hard time finding just what I wanted - which is just a basic (read: non-themed) set of Legos. I was amazed to see that even Lego, that staple of generic childhood fun, has succumbed to the appeal of being branded with whatever movie or character is currently popular, and has a very decidedly gender-specific bent to it.

Anyone who has ever shopped for toys in Target knows that they divide the toy area into three distinct sections: Infant, Girls, and Boys. So, first I looked in the girls section, and nowhere, amid the masses of Disney Princess, Bratz, Dora, and Polly Pocket stuff could I find Legos. So, I headed over to the boys area. In my opinion, all the really fun toys were there. There were a ton of things I would have loved to pick up for her, including battery-operated cars and a model rocket. But, since none of them were pink and sparkly, I knew better than to get them, as she would just wrinkle up her nose and say, "those are boy toys." Anyway, lo and behold, Legos must be considered boys toys, too, because it is in this area that I found them. Now, Sadie, who, if you haven't figured it out already, is the girliest of girly girls, happens to love playing with Legos, so it is interesting to me that Target considers them boy toys. Though, once I saw the selection of sets, I realized that it isn't just Target, but Lego itself that has assigned a gender to them, as almost all of the available sets were superhero related.

Anyway, I did manage to find a regular set (though, it wasn't as extensive as I would have liked), and that's what we're giving her tonight. So, anyway, I realize that my rant has overtaken this entry, when the point of it was really to celebrate five amazing years of the Sadie Show. So, Happy Birthday, big girl! We are so lucky to have you in our lives.