happy birthday and happy fall!

Guys.  Lily turned 3 yesterday.  How is that possible?  I don't want to be and won't be one of those obnoxious people who says the same thing every year about how hard labor and delivery were, how unprepared I was for motherhood or any of the typical things.  I refuse to be so repetitive!  Instead, I WILL brag about how awesome of a daughter I have.  Lily is hilarious, imaginative, smart (of course!), and an absolute gem.  She is a great big sister to Emma, and I have no doubt she will be loving and helpful with the new baby.  Jesse and I are incredibly blessed to have her as our firstborn.  She had her 3 year old check up today at the doctor and measured in the 75% for both height and weight.  So to the people who have told me my girls seem small for their ages...what?!  And just to record before I forget, Emma was in the 95% for height and 75% for weight.  Again: what?  I really don't think my girls are small.

I have no doubt that all my other friends will tell me that their 3 year olds are equally brilliant, and that's great.  But this is MY blog.  Lily knows the common shapes, and I think she particularly likes the octagon; she's also a color, animal, alphabet and counting champ.  We've started working on letter recognition and improving her dexterity.

We didn't do anything over the top for her birthday, but we did improve on last year since we felt that this year she really would begin to understand how exciting birthdays can be.  We made a big (for us) deal about her 2nd birthday, but still didn't feel she'd completely grasp it, so we made a bigger deal this year.  I still need to try and talk Jesse into a birthday party one year...but he and I both agree that as opposed to doing a party every year, we'd rather wait until we think she'll understand it and be more appreciative of it.  Good for you parents who have your act together enough and want to make birthday parties a priority: that's just not our thing.  Anyway, this year.  Unfortunately, I forgot to ask for the day off, so we started off by going to the Y.  Ok, so I can't go over the top yet with birthdays apparently.  I asked her a month or so ago what she wanted on her birthday cake, and she requested Curious George and has been looking forward to her birthday for that reason since.  So when Jesse and I woke her up yesterday morning, we told her it was her birthday and her face lit up and she exclaimed "I GET MY GEORGE CAKE!!!!!"  And then proceeded to ask me about it all day.  Jesse got to come home from work a bit early yesterday, and he stopped by the store to pick up a balloon bouquet for her since she absolutely loves balloons.  And since Daddy knows Lily well, he picked out Mickey Mouse balloons.  I think she was a huge fan.  She carried them with her all over the house and had full on conversations and play time with the giant Mickey head balloon.  After dinner, we finally had the George cake, and I was just thrilled she thought it actually looked like Curious George; when we finished cake, we brought out the presents we'd actually kept until her birthday.  I think Jesse and I both feel accomplished about that, as we both love to give presents and love surprises, so we barely can keep any present until the appropriate day.

All in all, I think she had a good day and had a lot of fun.  She even shared her toys with Emma.  

And onto other things.  My mom and grandma came to visit last weekend!  They got in Friday and had to leave Monday morning, but we had a lot of fun playing and visiting with them while they were around.  Jesse and I had a slightly stressful weekend, because when else would we have water issues but when people are visiting?  But it seems one has resolved itself at least somewhat and the other will be worked on later...

We had a short discussion with Mom and Mama about the first day of fall, and apparently it started on the 22 of the month this year, but changes periodically.  Ridiculous.  But, the good news is that fall can officially count as started because Jesse and I got the best thing that Starbucks has to offer: Caramel Apple Cider.  Don't even get me started on Pumpkin Spice Lattes...but they're low on my 1-10 scale of deliciousness.  Because really, if you're going to ruin the tastiness of coffee with fake flavoring, may as well make it chocolate.  But that's a different rant.  Jesse and I (maybe more me) have a fondness for the Caramel Apple Cider's from Starbucks and typically on the first cool fall day we can manage, we go and get one.  The reason I look forward to it, besides how yummy it is, is because the first time we hung out in college was a cool fall day and Jesse picked me up from my dorm, drove me to Starbucks and bought us each one before we went and watched football in his apartment.  In sweatpants.  Ah, love.  But we've had them and now fall may officially begin.

I had more I was going to share when I stared this post, but I have since forgotten.  So hopefully I'll just be back soon!  And I updated pictures (here).