Happy 3rd Birthday Emily

Yesterday, my baby girl turned 3. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting on my sofa watching Forest Gump when all of a sudden, my water broke, and I knew I would be meeting my daughter soon. As it turns out, it wasn't all that soon. 21 hours later, she finally came to say Hello, and nothing has been the same since then.

Yesterday, after she woke up, she got to open a few presents. Then, she spent the day playing with Grammy--they had lots of fun! She wore her Birthday Girl shirt to church, and after we got home, we had pink cupcakes and opened more presents. Her party will be tomorrow night!

In honor of her third birthday, I thought about writing my 3 favorite things about Emily. But you know me, and I couldn't limit myself to only 3. So to help everyone get to know her better, here are 33 things about Emily:

By the way, if you don't feel like reading all 33, skip to the pictures at the end ;-)

1. Her favorite color is pink

2. Her favorite song is Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty

3. When she has cake, she eats the icing and throws the cake away

4. She loves to take “sips” of her Daddy’s diet coke

5. On 3 occasions, she has poked a straw through a Styrofoam cup full of drink

6. She likes to eat at McAlister’s and Chick-fil-a

7. She recognizes Macy’s because of the red star

8. She thinks that Macy’s is her cousin Macey’s store

9. She likes to help me fold clothes

10. She even likes to help me put clothes on hangers

11. She nurses, bottle feeds, diapers, feeds “pretend baby food” to, and puts ALL of her babies to sleep with a blanket when she plays babies

12. Her favorite song at church is Come Now is the Time to Worship (and she calls it the “fishie song”)

13. She has been planning her princess birthday party since last summer

14. She loves to have birthday parties with her tea set

15. She would eat all 6 containers of Dora or Trix yogurt at one time if I would let her

16. The first thing she does when she gets to school every day is head to the play sink and start “washing dishes”

17. She loves to read—some books are memorized, and she will make up stories as she reads others

18. She always takes directions better if you sing them to her

19. Her favorite number is 11—if she is counting and forgets what comes next, it’s always “eleben”

20. She is all about the bling—jewelry, hairbows that sparkle, shirts with rhinestones, and glittery shoes

21. If I would let her, she would wear her Princess Aurora dress-up dress every day

22. She sometimes refuses to be called Emily and insists that she is Aurora

23. She likes to assign parts—on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, she is Minnie, Ty is Mickey, Mommy is Daisy, and Daddy is appropriately named Donald Duck

24. On Sleeping Beauty, she is Aurora, Prince Philip is assigned to Daddy or Ty, and Merriweather is assigned to Mommy or sometimes unfortunately Daddy

25. Her new phrase is “or not” as in “Do you want some candy or not?” or “Do you need to potty or not?” or “Can we go in Daddy’s truck or not?”

26. When she dresses herself, she comes to me and asks if she got it “ba-works”…“or not”

27. When we use a public toilet, she asks VERY loudly “Do you need to Tee-Tee or Poo-Poo?”

28. She loves her brother and when I yelled NO at him as he tried to pull my computer off of the counter, she told me to stop being mean to her brother. She also strokes his head or holds his hand and says “it’s okay” if he’s crying

29. She loves to come get in bed with Mommy and Daddy in the middle of the night

30. She knows that if she gets in on Daddy’s side, she will have a greater chance of getting to stay in bed with us

31. She had a rash a while back, and we prayed for it to get better. Now every night, she insists that we pray for her rash even though it’s been gone for a week!

32. She loves to come up various injuries that she believes require a band-aid, and she thoroughly enjoys the attention that she gets when people ask her about her non-existent injuries.

33. Because of her, I now have a teeny, tiny glimpse of the way God feels about his children.

Here she is in her first 24 hours of life:



And here is her one-year old portrait:



Two-Year Old Portrait:



I don't have her 3 y/o portrait yet, so here are two recent shots:




I love you, Birthday Girl!