Happy 3rd Birthday, Lou!

You crawled into bed with us at 6am and said "Did I grow?  Am I 3 now?"   Yep, you are!  Well technically not until 5:04pm this afternoon but close enough.  Happy Birthday, Lily Girl!

I sometimes stare at you and can't get over how beautiful you are.  You have the most beautiful towheaded blond hair and we have NEVER given you a hair cut yet.  You have the prettiest loose curls at the bottom.  You always request an "Elsa braid" even though I like when you let me leave it down.  You are also quite petite....easy to hold and squeeze.

Your best friend is still "BaBa."  You can say Brenna just fine but 98% of the time you call her BaBa or Bubba.   You two can definitely fight but have so much fun playing together.  You give her big sweet hugs and really just love being around her unless she's in a mood or something.

Hippo and Pacy are also 2 of your best friends.  You say these requests one right after the other.  "Pacy...Hippo!"  I told you that the pacy fair would be coming soon and your response was, "Ok, as long as she doesn't take my hippo."
I knew it got too quiet. Potty training was very easy with you.  You would pee in the potty shortly after you turned 2 and by 2.5 you would poop in the potty too.  You never had to wear pull-ups at night.  I think you've had maybe 2 accidents ever.  Even though you always got up so early, you have always gone to bed very easily for us for the most part.  We tried to put you and Brenna in the same room in bunk beds this year but Brenna didn't like the feeling of being up top and I think she wanted her own space at night so we ended up putting the bunk beds in your room and you sleep on the bottom and the top is a little reading/play area.
One of the sweetest things was when you said goodbye to your crib, one last time: Saying goodbye to her crib. #bitteraweet

You aren't much of an adventurous eater.  You eat a little bit all day but never really eat much at a meal.

You like playing with playdoh and lego duplo blocks.  You LOVED any and all things FROZEN this year and you sang "Let It Go" and acted it all out every chance you got.  At this exact moment, Frozen seems to be on the way out and you have discovered a love for Paw Patrol.  You also go to Yoga sometimes with Brenna and even though the class is for 4-8 year olds you still participate sometimes and you'll come out and see me and maybe have a snack or a drink and then go back in and finish.   You love demonstrating your handstand against the wall.

This summer you took a dance class which you loved.  You were really good at following the directions and you loved dressing up each week.  The one time Daddy took you though you cried and wouldn't go in.  Not sure what that was about...I think you were just used to me taking you.  We really enjoy going to story times at the library and going to ride the carousel.
You are a phenom on your scooter!   When Brenna was playing tball, you'd bring your scooter to the ball fields and scoot around and then you closer to 2 than 3 and people would stare cause they couldn't believe how good you were.  You and Brenna will race (you on scooter and her on her bike) and you can beat her!  She does not like that but you do!!!
Instagram You are also an amazing swimmer and swim at the pool where Brenna dives a couple times a week.  You can swim, float, swim thanks to ISR and we always go back every so often for a refresher lesson.

You also started school this past September at CEC.  You were very comfortable the first week since you were so use to going there with Brenna the last couple of years.  The second week was rough and you cried when I'd drop you off in the morning but you are used to it by now and I love hearing you sing all the songs from Chapel and your good morning song "Lily came to school today, school today, school today, Lily came to school today, we're so glad you're here."

Lily's First Day of Preschool!

I got out of the shower to this.... I love you, Lou Lou! Happy Birthday! The 2's were pretty great so don't be make it the terrible 3's ok? xoxoxoxox

And just like that, you are 6!

Happy 6th Birthday, Baby!!!!!

Each year on your birthday, I always love sitting down and reflecting on the year and all you've done and accomplished and struggled with and conquered.  OMG, I'm almost overwhelmed at the list of things you've done on what was only your 5th year on this planet.  But I will do my best to recap...

You had one more year of preschool at CEC.  You made some wonderful friends and graduated with smiles!  Mrs. Miguel taught you so much and you went from shy and clingy at the beginning of the year to happy and confident at the end.

You started KINDERGARTEN last week at Limestone Elementary School.  As we mentioned in last year's post, we red-shirted you for school.  Sept 1st was the cut off so instead of starting school at 4 turning 5, you started at 5 turning 6.   There is not 1 single ounce of me that regrets doing this because the growth that you had emotionally this year was HUGE.  You started kindergarten confident and excited and I couldn't be happier with how well you appear to have transitioned to big-girl school.

Teeth!  I could not believe my eyes when not far after you turned five, you got your first wiggly tooth!  I guess it's early to get, early to lose cause I remember you had a mouthful of teeth at a year old when some of your friends didn't have a single one.  Then 3 more fell out so you have the cutest little toothless smile right now.

The first little WIGGLE
Omg #loosetooth

Thanks to my good friend, Lauren Donovan for snapping this cute pics of my toothless wonder!

You learned to ride your bike with NO TRAINING WHEELS.  At CEC, they had a trike-a-thon where you bike around the parking lot raising money for St. Jude Children's Hospital.  A few of the girls in your class didn't have training wheels and you did so you came home and made the decision that it was time to learn and you did it in about 10 minutes.  Just like walking and almost anything in life, you like to wait until you are absolutely ready and then you just do it.  It was the same for walking...you waited until you knew you could run.  You don't like making mistakes, you are a bit of a perfectionist so you like to do it on your own time when you know you got it!  Don't be embarrassed or ashamed to fail.  You gotta hit some lows to appreciate the highs.  I get it though...I'm the same way.
Lookey here! #notrainingwheels #brennaboo

Dive:  You have been diving for a little over a year now and competed in 3 dive competitions.  I was soooooo proud of you because these are like real competitions and you were always one of the youngest there.  They are quite intimidating and just the fact that you competed and did 6 dives each time is something to be soooo proud of.  You're not so eager to try new dives but you really enjoy perfecting the ones you know.  Here you are at your 2nd competition where you got a gold medal :-)
Soooo proud of my little gold medalist today!!!! What a difference in 6 months in terms of guys and confidence!!! #3ddive

Here was your first unassisted front line up off the 3 meter board. GUTS!!!! I can't imagine being so brave First unassisted front line up off the 3m. Guts!!!!! Love my girl!

You participated in 2 dance recitals this year.  A sugar plum fairy in December's Nutcracker and a Bluebird in the Ugly Duckling Ballet in May.  You really were awesome...you totally paid attention and did all the moves.


Notice how you give your friend Sofia a little shove to get going at the end...lol, you know your cues!


In addition to dive and dance, you also played T-ball this year and Daddy was your coach.  You looked so little out there and you were adorable and loved being with Daddy.  You wore #2 just like he did when he was little.  I loved watching this special time for you and Daddy.  He loved it too and was a great coach!

Great season dolphin-mermaids!!!

This year was the year of FROZEN.  It came out in theaters in October and I think we had a constant loop of the soundtrack playing in the car from November - July.  Like every other girl your age, you love to sing "Let It Go"  And you are pretty darn good at it too.



This year was also the year of YouTube, specifically Kindereggs and playdoh art tutorial.  You can watch Kindereggs being unwrapped for hours and you love watching tutorials on playdoh creations.  You've turned into quite the little Playdoh Picasso but what I love most of all is catching you playing alone and pretending you are giving a tutorial on youtube..."Hi, My name is Brenna and today I'm going to be showing you how to build the perfect Mickey Mouse out of playdoh"   Ugh, could you be any cuter!
Brenna the Playdoh Picasso

Oh, another big deal this year was getting your ears pierced.  We went to the mall one day and ran into two friends randomly (Caroline and Cameron from CEC) and they sort of spur of the moment decided to get their ears pierced.  You FREAKED out during your 5 year old shots so I knew there was no way you were going to let 2 holes be poked through your ears.  Peer pressure or not you were not having it.  So we went home but to my surprise you woke up the next morning saying, "Mom, I want to get my ears pierced...I just need to wear my Brave Maeve shirt."   And so we went that day and did it.

So speaking of Brave Maeve and for anyone who might not know...Maeve is the little sister of one of your preschool classmates and I have become friends with their mom, Megan, who is one of the most brave and articulate moms I know and she oh so eloquently shares her journey of having a child with Type 1 Diabetes through facebook journal entries and community fundraising events and you are soooooo interested in Type 1 Diabetes and anything to do with Maeve.  You watch their YouTube videos and when you play house, you are always the "Big Sis who has Type 1 Diabetes."  You "check Lily's blood sugar" in the bathtub.  Megan texted me after she gave a little talk at CEC on Diabetes and said that you are bound to be an Endocrinologist when you grow up because you knew everything there was to know about the disease.  Your Grandpa Les has it too so you are very interested in it.  Your charitable heart is so special.  You were faced with a difficult decision this year because there was a Saturday where you had a T-ball game, a dive meet, and the Brave Maeve walk.  It wasn't difficult for you at all....the Brave Maeve walk it was and you scooted that whole 2 miles with your friend Dagny.  Daddy had to coach the team and you wanted to be with the Brave Maeve team.

You are an amazing big sis.  You and Lily have your share of arguments at home but anywhere else in public you are SUCH a good sister.  Always watching out for her and loving on her.  I'd take you both to a morning of gymnastics camp and you'd always tell me that you hung out mostly with Lily and took her to the potty whenever she needed to go.  The camp posted a picture of circle time on facebook and she was sitting on your lap.  You are her "Baba" even though she can say "Brenna" just fine now.  She loves her "Baba" so much.

Can you believe what a year you've had?  You have done soooo much in just 1 year's time.  I love you so much.  You make me so proud and yet can also drive me so crazy.  You continue to be so emotionally intense.  You are so sweet and kind but can also become very upset and angry (especially if sleep deprived)  This year was not a great one for you in terms of sleep.  You ended up on the floor of our room almost every night.  Even after Daddy built you the most beautiful bunk bed ever, you just didn't like it so we changed everything back to the way it was to try and get you sleeping better.  I'm really starting to see just how true the saying is "the days are long and the years are short."  Keep shining, baby.  You are so special and I am so blessed beyond measure to be your mom.

I heard this song in the car yesterday and I feel like it totally sums up how I feel about you right now.  So proud of you and I feel like I catch glimpses of you growing up before my eyes.  So bittersweet.