Happy Birthday Lily

I can’t believe my little Lily is already 3 years old. She’s so old! Lily has been looking forward to her birthday for months, it’s been really cute to hear her say, “I’ll be 3 on January 7th!” And now she is!

Ben woke her up this morning about 7:00 (a blessing on our heads, she usually wakes us around 6:00 or 6:30) so he could take her to breakfast. A tradition his father started, it was just Ben and Lily this morning. As soon as Lily woke up, the very first thing she said was “Am I 3 yet?” How cute is she? They went to Ruby’s Diner and got pancakes, Lily’s very favorite breakfast/lunch/dinner. The rest of the day, besides a quick stop to the chiropractor, was spent basically doing whatever Lily came up with. It was actually really fun. Lots of dress-up, pretending to be birds, pretending there was a storm in the house, basically just lots and lots of pretending. She’s very much into interactive imagination games. I really like this stage.

The best part of the day was probably around 10:30, when I dressed both the kids in coats and boots in preparation to take a walk to the library. But as soon as the garage door was open they were outside and finding all the puddles they could find. It was so cute to watch both of them, Michael with his very obvious glee and Lily with her quieter self-satisfaction. We all had so much fun, the kiddos getting soaked and me taking as many pictures as I could. We are definitely going to be doing that again.

Tonight I made pizza (almost burnt the house down, oops!) and breadsticks, and Lily got ice cream with a candle on top. She was so funny, she took forever to blow her candle out. I don’t know why, she knows how, but she just kind of sat there with a little smile on her face while we kept encouraging her to blow out the candle. It was cute, especially her reaction after she finally did blow out the candle – she immediately covered her face with both hands and then peeked out with another little smile! Sometimes she’s just too cute.

Favorite food: chicken nuggets.
Favorite color: Probably pink, but is pretty equally loving of all of them.
Favorite game: Princess dress-up and pretending to lose her slipper.
Only way I can get her to clean: Telling her she better hurry up and clean up all her toys so “Spot” (our robot vacuum) doesn’t eat them.
Favorite time of day: Definitely a morning person. Don’t know where she got that!!
Best phrase: (Said to Ben and I as we were cuddling) “Married time is over, guys!”
Favorite way to help: Helping Mommy cook in the kitchen, especially kneading bread dough.
Favorite book: How Does A Dinosaur Say Goodnight?
Favorite movie: The Land Before Time
Sweetest moment: Came up to me when she saw me crying, put her hands on my cheeks and said, “It’s ok Mommy, we can all be happy!”

Lily is very very talkative, but not to strangers. Then she tells me “I’m being shy".”
She loves Michael, and lately is very into being Mommy and cleaning up his hands and face after he eats. She is also a big help when I’m changing his diaper by singing to him and telling him “You have cute cheeks!” over and over to make him laugh.
She is completely potty trained, through the night also, although for some reason she thinks I still need to be in there to watch her wipe.
She thinks everything is magical. The first time she saw Christmas lights early December, she exclaimed, “Look at the magical lights!”
She went through a phrase (only just starting to get out of it, really) where she really thought she was Cinderella. I couldn’t call her Lily and she introduced herself as Cinderella to everybody. This lasted for months.

Basically, she is just the sweetest, cutest, funniest, smartest, most interesting little girl I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. (I’m sure I’m not biased at all!) She is such a blessing in our family, and makes us smile every day in so many different ways. I absolutely adore her, and I am so glad I’m her Mom.

Thank-you Lily, for being you, and for being our daughter!

Right after she blew out the candles. Funny girl.

Happy Birthday Lily!