Happy 3rd Birthday Minnie!

UPDATED WITH STATS:

Height: 40 inches 94%

Weight: 34 lbs 80%

Big GIRL I don't even know where to START with all you have done/changed/grown in the past year. Your vocabulary is AMAZING, your personality has blossomed even more as if that was EVEN possible and you are physically SO tall!!!

You know what you like and what you don't ~ new things are a little unnerving for you but once you give them a go you typically love a great adventure. Playing outside with someone ~ your friends, your family, your cousins, your neighbors is one of your very favorite things to do. Walking in the woods, playing soccer or "Bat" are all top on your list. If there is a swing involved... even better.

Your life was ROCKED when we brought your baby sister home for yah in August but you have handled it better than we could have hoped. We made it three months before you hurt her "on purpose" and even though I thought you didn't really "get it" after being punished a few minutes later you came to me and asked "is she OK Mom?" I know your heart is so sweet and I just want to encourage that and watch it grow. Miss B thinks the WORLD of you Minnie and she's watching you all.the.time. A lotta pressure for a little girl but I know you are up to the challenge and she is SO blessed to have you...

We still seem to struggle with some things that you KNEW were wrong before Miss B but I think you test the boundaries just to see if we are still the same parents... I assure you... we are. We still can't EAT markers in this house or cut our own hair with scissors. We can't write on our kitchen toys with crayons or MiMi's new cushions with chalk. Call us sticks in the mud but we have to set some limits somewhere.

Naps and bedtime are a CHALLENGE. You really love to give us a run for our money at nap time but once you fall asleep you go for about and hour and 1/2-3 hours... so we KNOW you are tired. I think you are just trying to figure out where you can have some free reign and where Mom and Dad really ARE the boss. Most days you are up by 6:30 ~ it's a rough go it it is before 6 ~ you nap around 12:30-1ish and you are in bed for the night around 7-7:30.  

You LOVE your "snacks" and will lick the frosting off any special treat :) Time spent with friends is also one of your favorite things and you wake up asking me "where are we going today Mom?" You LOVE LOVE LOVE spending entire days at Mimi's or Nana's house and ask often to go visit Pheebs and your friend Aesa ~ gotta love a friend with a pony :)

You are wearing mostly size 5 clothes. Pants are a little long but I expect by the time you have your post-Christmas growth spurt you'll be in them just fine. You wear a size 10 shoe (welcome to my world sweet girl) and you know the rules that we never leave the house without a hair pony :) You don't much care WHAT to wear just that you like to get dressed so we can GO SOMEWHERE.

You are watching us ALL the time and listening even when we think you are not. Repeating things back to us like "LITERALLY Mom!" and "can you massage my feet?" :) I didn't even know you KNEW the word massage :)

If THREE is what everyone has counseled us it is, we are in for a ride in the next year my sweet, spicy, sassy girl. I'm up for the challenge (I hope) and I can't wait to see how we have ALL grown in the next year.

I pray you continue to let your little light shine by singing praise and worship songs at the TOP OF YOUR LUNGS in the local shopping establishments and asking your friends to come to church with you...unprompted. I am sure we are in for more giggles like we had the other night when I asked you why the light was still on in your bedroom and you replied with... "Because that's how God made it. To stay on." :) I want your relationship with the Lord to be real, known and consumed in your whole life.

I pray that you and your sister continue to grow closer and closer and that this relationship is one that is like none other. I want you both to know how special the other is and that no matter how different you are from each other that you'll accept each other and have one another's "back" like no one else. Forever.

We are the lucky ones sweet goose that we get to call you our own. How blessed we are to be in your presence each day and have you love on US.

Happy Third Birthday Minnie. We LOVE YOU! Daddy, Mommy AND Baby Sister