Happy 3rd Birthday, Ellie

Dear Ellie-belly,

Today is your 3^rd birthday. I have had so much fun preparing for this birthday because this is the first year you actually understood what a birthday means. For the past few weeks, you have been informing me, “I’m going to be THREE!” You talked about your birthday party and picked out the type of cake you wanted (Dora). You told me that everyone would be happy at your party. And, of course, you were right.

This past year your language has exploded. You have evolved from simple sentences to full-on paragraphs complete with descriptive adjectives. I find you so interesting to talk to and you often catch me off guard with your observations. I often wonder when kids stop being so fascinating. Because, truly, you fascinate me. I could just sit and watch you for hours and you are my favorite topic of conversation (good thing I have this blog to get it out of my system or I might not have any friends left).

I love how independent you are. You definitely know what you want and are very vocal about letting us know. We have been working a lot with you lately on using your nice voice. You are very polite and are good about telling us “I very sorry” when you get in trouble.

You used to be more of a Daddy’s girl, but now you seem to take turns with who you prefer. Every night, after we finish reading you a story and saying prayers, you pick one of us to stay in the room to talk to you and order the other one to leave. For awhile there, you were ordering me out of the room every night and making your Daddy stay, but lately you have been choosing me. “Daddy, go out. I want to talk to Mommy.” We then proceed to discuss the plans for the following day and you tell me what adventures you want to go on after school. Some nights I am so tired and just want to go to bed, but then I remind myself that in the not so distant future, you may no longer want my company like you do now.

This is the last birthday you will spend as an only child. I think you are excited about being a big sister. You will often kiss my belly and talk baby talk to your baby brother/sister. I ask you if you want a baby boy or a baby girl and I get a different response every time. Sometimes you will just say, “No, thank you.” Ellie, I know that you will be an amazing big sister. I hope that you never feel overshadowed by the demands a new baby will place on our family. You will always be our Ellie-belly and we will always love everything about you.

Happy 3^rd birthday, Ellie. Thank you for being such an amazing daughter.

Love you forever,

Mama

Sunday Best: Easter edition

I was running late for church this morning so I didn't have much time to snap a million Sunday Best pictures of Ellie in her Easter dress. It was almost too small for her, but she loved it and kept twirling around in circles to get it to spin out. She wasn't as happy at church. Ellie has learned a new trick of telling me she has to go potty whenever she is bored. She had to go "potty" three times during the first hour of church. Yeah. But if I try to ignore her, she just keeps saying it louder and louder. And then she switches from potty to telling me, "Mommy, I have to go poo poo!" By this time, people are turning around looking at us and wondering why on earth I won't take my poor, suffering child to the bathroom. She's clever.
After church, we went to my mother-in-law's house for the annual Easter egg hunt. My MIL goes all out, this year hiding a grand total of 164 eggs. Plenty of time for me to take 5 million pictures. The eggs were mostly filled with quarters so Ellie came home $17.25 richer. Ellie has been a real homebody lately, always telling me, "I want to go home." But today when I asked if she was ready to go home, she said, "No, thanks." And who wouldn't want to hang out at Nana's where everyone dotes on you and gives you presents? Even though she now has baby Brannon to share the spotlight with, he is such a laid back little dude that he doesn't mind Ellie hogging the limelight (spotlight, limelight...what a mess of metaphors).Tomorrow is Ellie's 3rd birthday, but since we already had her party, I wasn't sure if I should even tell her it was her birthday. I tried explaining it on the way to church this morning. I told her that her birthday was tomorrow and that she would be 3. First she told me she wanted another party. Then she told me that she doesn't want to be 2, she wants to be 3. And then she told me that she wants to drive a bus.

Ellie's 3rd Birthday Party

We celebrated Ellie's birthday party at Pump It Up. I loved not having to really plan or arrange anything. I was able to just sit back and enjoy the party (and take lots of pictures, of course). Ellie had a blast and I think all of her little friends did, too. I was a little nervous because I had invited her entire preschool class and only 4 people RSVP'd! But between cousins, friends, and those 4 little classmates, we had a great turnout.

Lone Star Triathlon

Two years ago, my two crazy brothers decided to enter the Lone Star Half Iron. This is no easy triathlon. You start off by swimming 1.2 miles in the ocean. Then you ride bike for 56 miles. And then you finish with a nice, easy 13.1 mile run. Crazy, right? They enjoyed torturing themselves so much that they recruited more people the following year. And then it became a family tradition. This year, my sister Jen did the Sprint Triathlon, my other two sisters did the Quarter Triathlon, and my Dad and my brother did the Half Iron. We all drove to Galveston on Friday and camped out at the Moody Gardens hotel for the weekend. On Saturday, we cheered Jen on for the Sprint. Then we all went to Moody Gardens for a little fun. Can I just say that the tickets for Moody Gardens are WAY overpriced for what you get? Seriously. My three nieces also decided to get in on the race action by participating in the Little Lone Star. I am totally registering Ellie for it next year. Anyway, Sunday was the most exhausting day because we were cheering on 4 different family members who all started at different times. We were running all over the place trying to catch them at different locations and cheer them on. I was so worn out by the end of the weekend and I wasn't even a participant! It was really awesome spending time with my family, though, and I was so glad that all three of my sisters were able to fly in to participate. I was also super proud of my dad, who is turning 60 in August, for completing the Half Iron. What an achievement!

Random bullets

• Every day I walk around feeling like I am on the verge of throwing up. It is awesome. So, I didn't think much of it this morning when I felt that way until I leaned over Ellie's drawer to hunt for some pants and...now I have to wash a drawer full of previously clean clothes.
• Ellie's new phrase is, "Do you love it?" It reminds me of Paris Hilton and I keep waiting for her to start saying, "That's hot." When I picked her up for school today, she came running over with some weeds in her hand. "Mommy! I picked you some flowers! Do you love it?" Yes, yes I did.
• It was so nice out yesterday that I got out the bubbles for Ellie to play with. When she was finished, she poured out the rest of the bottle onto the grass. So, today I bought her a new bottle and sent her out back to blow bubbles at Kali. I looked out the window a few minutes later to find her dumping the entire bottle into Kali's bowl. No more bubbles for her.
• My new diet of toast, soup, and PB and jelly sandwiches has caused me to lose a few pounds. It is really odd seeing the numbers on the scale get smaller while my stomach gets bigger.
• I just noticed that I still had Christmas decorations on my front door. How did I not see the "Winter Wishes" sign every day when I came home?