February 13th, birthday morning. Lily was greeted with a curtain of streamers and balloons as she left her bedroom. I remarked on how she must have grown taller now that she’s three. She stood tall and agreed that she had, indeed, grown taller since she’s three. At breakfast, we practiced making threes with our fingers, it’s a tricky age, finger-wise.
After school, Lily and I worked together to bake her birthday cake. Chocolate by request. Lily was a little put off by the fact that we couldn’t eat the cake immediately, had to wait until the rest of the family arrived home, and even worse, had to wait until after her requested pizza dinner. Torture.
After the dinner and dessert portion of the night, we moved onto the present round. Cards, gifts, packages in the mail. Lily (and Ella) were not short things to open. Lily went right for the gift from Mommy and Daddy, mostly because it had been wrapped and taunting her for a week. Inside, she found her very own Cabbage Patch Kid! I savored the baby powder, new CPK smell. So good. The doll has hair like Lily’s, a birthday on February 8th (coincidentally, the day I wrapped it!), and is named Addison. Ella quickly ran to retrieve, her beloved, naked CPK named Janis and the girls ran around the apartment with their dolls, chasing one another.
Friday morning, Loran and I joined Lily’s (and Ella’s) class at Cedars to celebrate Lily’s birthday. The candle was lit, the globe was retrieved and Lily set out on her journey around the sun to commemorate her three trips. They start with a photo from when you are born, then age one, and age two, arriving at present day. The class sung “Happy Birthday” where Lily could choose English or Spanish, cha-chas or no cha-chas. Lily chose English with cha-chas. Lily helped pass out fruit snacks to her friends and Ms. Martha read the book Lily donated, Plant a Kiss. A title that made the boys squeamish.
As we were leaving school, we were invited out onto the playground to see a six day old baby goat that a parent had brought to show the children. We scooted off as Ms. Martha’s class shuffled out so as not to disrupt them.
A few more school photos. The class garden, Ms. Martha’s class and the playground.
Three years already. It’s so hard to believe it was only three years ago that we were getting to know Lillian as a seven and a half pound baby. We new before we’d left the hospital that she was full of spirit. Even as a newborn she’d mastered making hilarious faces, loved the spotlight, was full of spunk and had a knack for the dramatic. Those big blue eyes took in everything, she hardly napped, demanded constant attention and holding and was ready for the spotlight. Such a little lady she’s becoming. Smart as can be. Loran was reading off those growth questionnaires put out by the CDC, asking me if she could do certain tasks, I answered yes to every single one, then he told me that was the four year old list. Colors? Easy. Letters? No problem. Letter sounds? Sure. Numbers? Got it. Then, she throws us a curveball and decides to write her name a few weeks ago. To top it off, we were making Valentine cards, Lily made one for our builder’s sales consultant/friend, Holly. Lily asked me how to write Holly’s name for the envelope. Lily was perched on the floor next to my chair as a spelled it out, not really paying attention to her, figuring she’d scribble some marks and call it good. Sure enough, without help, she wrote HOLLY.
Trip number four – here we go!
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