Three

We recently added a three-year-old to our household. She was so, so excited to be "big"!

Sunny did get two of those candles out on her own. She "blew really hard" and got the third one out, too, though I may or may not have added a little wind to the endeavor.

Our birthday girl with her pink butterfly cake. Unfortunately, I forgot that Sunny doesn't care for sweets if they aren't chocolate. Oops. Poor thing took one bite of the cake, looked at me with tears in her eyes, and said, "But Mommy, I don't wike it!". She had frozen yogurt instead. Thankfully she likes all flavors of that since all I had in the freezer was vanilla!
This is her expression where I think she looks so much like my Grandma and her family. It always makes me smile.

Sunny has wanted a robe in the worst way for months. It was so great that Miss Mouse and Daddy found this one at the mall so that she can have the best of both worlds - a robe that isn't overly-warm! All winter I've had trouble keeping pants on this child because she gets so hot (and after our new oven gift arrived, we no longer have an 80+ degree house; it's stayed at 70 all winter, telling me that Sunny's thermostat is just set "hot"), so I couldn't see getting her a warm, fluffy, long-sleeved robe like the one Miss Mouse curls up in. After doing some research online, I found a store that had these lighter robes; what a relief for Daddy and Miss Mouse to find that the store had them in stock (especially since they were shopping on Sunny's birthDAY.....they HAD to come home with something!). Sunny also got a rainbow-colored pair of goggles from her big sister.

For Sunny's birthday dinner, she wanted to go to Ruby Tuesday's. She loves their salad bar. *Yes, we're raising odd children. Yes, we know most kids want to go to Space Aliens or Chucky Cheese. And, we're so totally okay with it!* Anyway, by the time we got down there, she was asleep in the car. She's struggling to give up her naps, which I'd rather have her keep, and car rides are just too much for her to fight off sleep. I carried her in; we got settled at our table; the poor gal slept through half of her birthday meal. I tried flicking water at her nose; I tried standing her up by the table (while still holding onto her, of course); Daddy suggested shoving her hand in cold water (this was quickly vetoed by myself and Miss Mouse when Miss Mouse was told what could happen to her poor sister....good thing Daddy wasn't serious in the first place!). Nothing worked to wake her up, so she and I ate our dinners after Daddy ate his. Miss Mouse, true to form, was still munching even after Sunny and I had finished. I think we were sort of irritating to the waitress, having taken so long, but it was Sunny's birthday meal! It turned out to be really fun, but there were a few moments where we wondered if we'd just have to box up her hamburger and skip the salad bar for Sleeping Beauty!

This three-year-old is such a blessing to us. She's so sweet, kind, sensitive, caring.....yet she also has a funky sense of humor, knows how to be the "irritating" little sister already, acts out by being even goofier than usual, thrives on attention and will get it however she can, and has a terrible habit of putting small toys in her mouth! Because of these more, hmmm, "wild" habits, I think it's easy to overlook her sensitive side, but that has been showing through more and more lately in so many ways.

For example, we were out to eat a few weeks ago. In true Sunny style, she had fallen asleep on the way to the restaurant, so I held her through the first part of the meal. When she woke up, the adults' food was not at the table yet, so she ate her food on my lap. I had prepared the high chair complete with the sanitary high chair cover right next to me for her to move to when my food arrived. However, when my food came, there was no way she was going off my lap. First came the whine, then the little screams, then a nearly all-out tantrum. Off to the bathroom we ran to calm down. I could sense something was out of kilter with her. Once we got to the bathroom, and I got her calmed down, she was able to tell me that she did not WANT to sit in a HIGH CHAIR like a BABY! She was absolutely horrified to think of having to sit in a high chair. Here I thought she'd prefer it since she tumbled out of a chair during my own birthday meal in November (since then we've mainly sat at booths, but we were at a table this night in question). Apparently that was not her preference. So, out we went, took off the high chair cover, exchanged the high chair for a regular "big" chair, and had no more tears. Several times since that evening she has said, "Mommy thought I was a BABY at the westauwant!" She had been so terribly embarrassed. It came out like a naughty little fit, but when it came down to it, she was embarrassed. For me, it's a rather sweet memory and was a good reminder of what a sensitive little girl she is. Her personality is different than her sister's, but they share sweetness.

Welcome to the world of big girls, Sunny!