Lilah's 3rd birthday party

Lilah wanted a Dora the Explorer party for her third birthday.  I'd been avoiding Pinterest for a while, but I finally caved and joined to get ideas for the party.  Here's a little taste of the fun:

The decorations...

 The food...

Making Dora bracelets (Who knew Dora wears a bracelet?  Thank you, Pinterest, for revealing that little interesting fact.  Now I notice Dora's bracelet in all of the books I read and wherever else I end up seeing Dora.  Anyway, made for a fun party activity.)

The cake...

The favors...

Happy birthday, my sweet Lilah Jane!

Lilah turns three

Dear Lilah,

You are three years old today!  And such a joy.  I'm so incredibly thankful that God blessed me with you.  What a precious gift you are.  Here are a few things about you:

You are sweet.  You are good at making others feel loved.  You give me the sweetest hugs and kisses and tell me that you love me.  I love that!

You are fun.  You like to be goofy, and you make the silliest faces.  

 You play well with your big brother (at least until the fights ensue).  He appreciates your goofiness and values your company.

You are full of spunk.  It's hard to put that part into words, but those who know you well enough can attest to it.

You have a lot to say.  You spoke from an early age and don't hesitate to talk, whether to yourself or your toys or people you meet in the grocery store.  You love to have books read to you, and to "read" them yourself.  You will sit and go through entire books by yourself, telling the story out loud as you go.

You aren't afraid to express your feelings.  You have opinions about a lot of things (e.g. what clothes you want to wear), and you don't hesitate to make them known. 

You're a good sister, both big and little.  This is the day you became a big sister:

You love Gabriel and often give him hugs and kisses.

This has been a year of big changes for you.  You moved into a big girl bed.  You switched rooms and now share one with your big brother.  You stopped using your paci.  You became a big sister.  And you stopped napping.  Some of those transitions were rougher than others, but you seem to have adjusted to all of them by now.

 Here are a few more random photos from your third year.  Crazy to see how much you've grown in that time!

 

I am so thankful for you, my baby girl.  I am excited to watch as you continue to grow and your personality and talents and dreams continue to be revealed.  But I'm also determined to enjoy you every step of the way.  You are my sunshine, and you fill my heart with joy.

Love always,

Mama 

Three months old!

My sweet Gabriel,

You are amazing, my little man.  I just adore you.  

You are super sweet and easy going.  You play the part of the third child rather well, I must say.

You pretty much need to be flexible, and most of the time you handle that like a champ.  You do voice your opinion when you want to.  Like when it's time for you to eat and we're in the middle of picking your brother up from school or something.  But you don't spend a whole lot of your time crying.  Not much at all, really.  (As long as I don't torture you by making you ride around in the car when you're awake.  But you seem to be getting over that now too.)

 

You started smiling when you were only a few weeks old.  Real smiles.  For a while people were saying that there was another reason for your smiles.  But I knew when they were real.  You started laughing at around the two month mark.  It takes a little effort to get you to laugh, but you are very generous with your smiles.  You melt my heart with them daily.  The other day someone said of you, "I just love his little personality.  He's such a charmer."  Indeed.

You sleep well too.  For most of your life so far, you have generally woken up once in the middle of the night to eat, and gone back to sleep pretty easily.  The past few nights, I have tried to just let you go back to sleep without feeding you, and you have slept until morning!  We'll see if that sticks.  You typically wake up between 6am and 7am (sometimes earlier), but at that point I bring you into bed to nurse and we both end up falling back asleep.  You're also good at getting yourself to sleep.  In your early days, I would most of the time hold you or put you in the carrier until you fell asleep.  But at this point, I usually just put you in your crib awake and you fall asleep on your own.  You like sleeping on your tummy, which I know is a parenting no-no these days.  But I let you do it for naps anyway.  I was never good at working tummy time into the routine with any of my babies.  So this works out well, actually.  Two birds, one stone.

Right around your 3-month birthday, you "found" your thumb.  I haven't had a thumb sucker before and I think it's pretty darn cute.  I might not feel that way a year from now, but for now it's an easily accessible pacifier...one that I don't have to help you find in the middle of the night.  So that's a plus.

Your siblings love to give you snuggles and try to do that often.  Caleb understands a little better than Lilah how not to smother you, although he still does at times.  You are usually gracious, but do let them know when it's a little too much.  I especially enjoy watching Caleb interact with you.  Being a little older and having done this big brother thing before, he has an affection for you that is particularly sweet.

Lilah proudly tells everyone who is interested (and some who might not be) that you are Gabriel Jacob.  And she often runs over to us when we're holding you, saying, "Gabriel!  Gabriel!  Gabriel!" and wanting to "see" you.  She did go through a rough spell while adjusting to your presence in our family, but she seems to be doing better now. 

You have been interacting with toys more and more.  Your favorite for a while was the hippo that hangs from your bouncy seat.  I would catch you smiling at it, and then you began to swat at it.  Now you are able to grab onto it. 

 You make those cute baby gurgles and goo's, and like it when we make them back.  

You continue to nurse well and are growing so quickly.  At your two month appointment, you weighed 13.5 lbs already!  I found out that you were in the 90th percentile for weight and 95th for height.  What?!  I didn't know we could make a baby that big.  With your quick growth and development, you didn't seem like a newborn for very long, which makes me a little sad.  But I'm definitely thankful for how well you're doing! 



 You are such a joy, Gabriel Jacob.  Most of my friends who have three kids had a pretty chill third baby so I hoped that would be true of you too.  And it is!  I think that part of the ease comes from me being a third-time mama.  I'm finally getting the hang of this whole baby thing.  But you definitely should get credit too.  You are such a happy little man, and very easy going.  I am so thankful to be your Mama and can't wait to watch you as you grow and your personality emerges more and more.  Okay, I guess I can wait.  But I'm looking forward to it.

Love always,

Mama