Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Second Daughter Is Three

Second Daughter's birthday has been a topic of conversation for at least a month. Her babies have all been celebrating birthdays. She's very excited. We began her actual birthday with, as always, a pancake bigger than her head.



She requested an Elmo party. She likes Elmo well enough, but I would not have guessed she'd want such a theme. I think it's because she went to another three year old's birthday party a few months ago with an Elmo theme and became enamored of the experience. She will have an Elmo cake, courtesy of Second Son's godmother who graciously and excitedly offered when I jokingly asked if she would. (She's also making something for Second Son who will be celebrating his first birthday at the same party.) We're not carrying the theme too far, though, as we've opted for a baby pool and sprinkler party amidst the horrifying heat.

Boots is her favorite companion. He's a stuffed Curious George she renamed and often dresses in baby girl clothes. Boots likes to swing, ride in the wagon, sit in the toy high chair and generally enjoys whatever Second Daughter enjoys. Most of her other stuffed animals and baby dolls (of which she has an abundance) are named "Lollipop." (We read Amanda Pig and Her Best Friend Lollipop together.)



She loves her Little People. Every day, we find them lined up on the piano, surrounding a little table, seated in cars for a road trip and chattering to each other. (Second Son has discovered the great joy of attacking her Little People. Ah, to be a baby brother!)

Everything is made into a family. At meals, she will sneak to the silverware drawer and pull out enough to make a mommy, a daddy and a baby.



Her pronunciation is astounding and yet not quite perfect. She still says "told" instead of "cold," "nack" instead of "snack," "wim" for "swim," "biper" for "diaper," and can't pronounce her big brother's name. She has also developed some interesting phrases like "That's spicy to me." (Which has nothing to do with how spicy a food is.)

I love to watch her dance. I could watch her dance all day long. It warms my heart, brings tears to my eyes, and reminds me to thank God for my wonderful life. Really and truly. I have a video of her dancing that my old computer absolutely could not upload. One of these days I'll transfer it to my laptop and get it up so you can all see how wonderfully she dances.

Pudding pop on her birthday

Oh, but she's terrible at Mass. That girl cannot behave. She has recently potty-trained (hooray!) and insists she needs to go to the bathroom at least four times during Mass. It's difficult to refuse since we're not anxious for an accident in the pew, but she usually only gets one or two passes.

She loves stories and books of all kinds. She still makes piles of them and looks through them, each page, one at a time, piling them up on the other side. Luckily the piles aren't quite as dangerously tall as they used to be.

She loves listening to Cat Chat. When she has the chance to pick a video, she likes to choose different things (unlike her brother who only watched VeggieTales at her age). She alternates between Dora, Diego, WordWorld, VeggieTales, LeapFrog, and really anything her glance happens to fall upon. She will happily pretend play Mario Brothers with her big brother and sister.

Second Daughter has a tremendous imagination. I love to watch her play. We're excited and thrilled to be starting a fourth year with her in our midst.