This past weekend, we celebrated Baby's third birthday. I can hardly even believe that it's been three years since we watched her come into this world, and yet I can't imagine there was ever a time when she wasn't with us. Maybe that feeling comes from the idea that we all knew each other before we came to earth, so really, it was just a few years of being separated before we were reunited with her again. Who knows?In an unfortunate turn of events, John's call in Altoona was cancelled last minute (where we were all supposed to meet) so fortunately Ethan and Rebecca made the long trek from DC to Dexter for the long weekend (thank you, Ethan, for taking Friday off). Of course, John and I were rather nervous about them arriving, because we knew that they were coming sick. Coughing and sneezing from three of them, and John and I are headed on a dive trip in just two short weeks. No joke, I wore a mask the first day.
Friday morning, bright and early, everyone was up and ready to go. Poppie and I threw Baby in a quick black-water bath before we headed out for our daily runs. We stayed close to the house so that we could listen for sleeping Brother, but most of us still got our miles in. Even Baby did. She ended up running almost a mile (and believe me, she was running as I had to step it up to keep up with her), and then walked two more. She's been like this her whole life--she loves to run. She won't ride the balance bike that we bought her for anything, but chooses to go old-school with just a pair of running shoes. And I was happy to get the Disney soundtrack going when we ran out of things to talk about--and she just kept going.
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| She has NEVER worn a hat (not in the cold, not when she HAS a cold, never), but she'll wear Lollie's pink and purple hat! |
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| My favorite kind of picture: a Baby selfie <3 |
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| For once, it was a relief to not have my name on anything legal :-) |
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| Now THIS is the way to handle any experience at the DMV ;-) |
Dinner that night was at Black Rock, a fun, if not over-priced place to go. Baby--she was so good AGAIN, just playing with her "dolls" at dinner (I might need to try and change that term because when I think of dolls, I think of:
And John are I were rushing to buy candy afterwards to hit the ward trunk-or-treat while Ethan and Rebecca rushed home to change everyone into costumes, when John discovered that he'd left his wallet at the restaurant.
No worries. Buy the candy. Drive to the church. Give out the candy. Return to the restaurant. And don't take a picture of your super cute family in their "Under the Sea" costumes. Yep, Ethan was a SCUBA diver, Rebecca was a jellyfish, Baby was a mermaid, and Brother was a "shark attack", compliments of Uncle Mark. Gosh, they looked sooooooo cute! In all honesty, I would have just dumped my bucket of candy in Baby's little bag if I'd had my druthers... But you'll have to imagine them all in their costumes, because like I said, I forgot to take pictures.
And that night, always the best part of any Kennedy get together, Staedte und Ritter with John, Ethan and me. And for the third game in a row over the past few months, I won again. Don't get me wrong--it was close, but in the end, all that matters is who gets to 13 points first ;-)
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| The Henley boys ;-) |
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| One of my favorites :-) |
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| Brother wasn't feeling very well. And he was tired. Poor boy. |
But how cute was she at her My Little Pony party? We celebrated with a rainbow cake from Baskin Robbins, and sandwiches from Mike's Deli (for the adults) and a Happy Meal (for Baby). She is just the cutest thing when she opens gifts. She's full of "thank you"s, and sweetness.
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| We got the party ready while Mom and Da got the food. |
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| She was all about that cake! ;-) |
And a couple of things to remember about her from this specific age:
- She will just randomly walk around a corner, poke her face into the kitchen, and say, "Lollie, I love you," or "Lollie, you're so beautiful." Make my heart melt.
- She loves to host tea parties. She can hardly get in the door of our house before she's asking for the Polish pottery tea sea that I bought so long ago for my own girls but that has gone unused until now.
- She is an amazing talker. Having had children (boys especially) who were incredibly slow in speech development, it will stop me in my tracks to hear her vocalize something in complete sentences. And I think I proved to her father that she can, in fact, learn German, and that it is his responsibility to teach it to her. I had her speaking little German sentences within minutes, and she could use them in context.
- And a really great thing about her speech development? She doesn't throw the normal tantrums of a two-year-old. When she gets mad, she comes over and tells her mom how angry she is, and then goes off and pouts quietly. If that's her idea of a tantrum, I can definitely get behind that.
- I know every grandparent says it, but my grandchild is super smart. And athletic. Again, more so than even my own children.
- She's a super sleeper. Glo would crawl into our bed until she was four, so seeing little Baby sleep the night away is...again...amazing.
- I think she is waiting for the day when Brother can play with her. She sure loves on him and is constantly in his face, so I can only imagine her happiness when he can be her friend.
- She sings. One afternoon, I was feeling not great so I laid down for a 45 minute nap. Baby was down for her nap in the pack and play in John's closet (yep, it happens, and it works brilliantly), but she was just running through her litany of songs. Maybe I should call it "Baby's Playlist". "Happy birthday," "I Love to see the Temple," and whatever else comes to mind. And she's starting to hold pitch which is naturally super exciting ;-)
- She's obedient. Not perfectly, but she definitely listens. And she thinks about things. And she asks questions.
- She knows how to politely ask for something with "May I...?" I'm not sure my own children remember to do that anymore!
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