Birthdays Galore!

We've been so busy this past lately that it seems like we lost a few days. Peanut's birthday was yesterday, and we celebrated by staying in and watching the playground be built. The anticipation was pretty serious. We turned on the Zune for some music and danced around for a while - I had it on "shuffle" until some Rage Against the Machine came on... not so much for the wee ones. We had a lot of time to play with the "yittle girs" as she calls her dolls; put them to bed, fed them, cuddled them. It is so funny how the doll play has expanded. She has always loved holding and wrapping them up, but now the things the acts out with them are at once hysterical and touching. I particularly love seeing her help them through a rough spot that she has dealt with recently. For example, she has one girl who sleeps in a basket while the rest sleep next to her. She says the one in the basket knows how to sleep by herself but the others have not learned how to do that yet - she is still teaching them. We've had this discussion with her about her little brother - that we are helping him to learn how to sleep on his own and sometimes it is really hard and takes a lot of time. It's really cute to hear your own words come back around at you - especially when they are sweet and gentle. Sometimes it's not so sweet though.

So Peanut is three. She is a "big little girl", and she blows me away with the things she knows and does. She is beyond sweet, so totally adorable that I can hardly stand it. I can watch her play and listen to her talk and I just smile. Last night we had a brownie with a candle in it for her and she was so excited about it - the singing and blowing out the candle as well as the brownie itself! She is already talking about her chocolate cake she wants next week when we have her little shindig with her friends.

I think about the day she was born and the days (yes really, days - 4 to be exact) of labor before she finally joined us. I was focused on birthing, but I understood that I would be a parent. I did not however understand what a huge upside down flip of my life that would mean, nor did i grasp how much you can truly love someone. I just love that little girl with all my heart and all my being. Watching her grow and seeing her becoming the person she is today has been incredible. It's hard to believe she is three - it seems so fast. Happy Birthday Peanut! I love you!