"Mama, I'm 3 years old!"

Those were Eleanor's first words to me as she came out of her room this morning!  My sweet girl is 3 now and she is so excited.  Twice today she told us, "I'm a grown up now!  I'm 3!"  We had a full, fun day celebrating together.

A special birthday eve biscuit that Hunter made

Last time to go to sleep as a 2-year-old!

We went to Downtown Disney and Eleanor enjoyed building a car at the Lego store

Her car

Racing against other cars

(Hers did not win.  It was pretty though!)

She loved riding the carousel! 

Checking out the toy store

She wanted to ride in this little train all by herself!

Water break

Lego dragon(?) in front of the Lego store

Catching her first glimpse of the T-Rex restaurant

She was a little overwhelmed at first, but ended up loving it

We ordered a quesadilla for an appetizer, and Arthur ate over half.

Here he is waiting VERY impatiently for more food - just after taking this, he started crawling over Hunter's arm to get to round 2 or 3 that Hunter was preparing for him.
The boy loves his food!

Back at home, opening presents

Happy birthday, sweet girl!

(That's our special birthday plate that I made - you only get to eat off of it on your birthday.  She loved it!)

Tonight after Hunter put Eleanor to bed I went in to say good night.
Me:  Happy birthday!
Eleanor:  Happy birthday!
Me:  But today isn't my birthday.  It's July 22nd, your birthday!
Eleanor:  But then after August it will be your birthday and I will tell you, "Happy birthday, Mama!"
(My birthday is in September)

I love this girl so, so much.  What an amazing 3 years it has been!

Summer fun

Some Arthur videos

Arthur has gotten very good at doing the sign for "All Done" when he finishes his food!  He usually does it on his own, but of course here I'm trying to get him to do it for the camera.  And I realize that this is not the official sign for all done, but it's the one we use around here.

Technical note - this video is blurry and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  My new DSLR takes great pictures and can do HD movies, but half the time I take a video I focus incorrectly and it comes out blurry.  Anybody have any tips?

 

 Hunter invented this silly little bath game when Eleanor was a baby where you hold up the plastic octopus and drop it into the water.  She thought it was hilarious then and now Arthur does too!

 

Happy birthday, baby girl

Four years ago today, after 32 hours of labor, we held our tiny little firstborn baby.  She was born at 24 weeks and weighed 1 lb 10 oz.  We named her Ada Elizabeth and, a few days later, scattered her ashes at this beach at sunrise.  Every year we come back on her birthday to remember and honor her.

I remember sitting on the beach holding her ashes in my hand and imagining what it would be like to bring her little siblings here on her future birthdays.  They're even more beautiful than I imagined.

Figuring out that sand doesn't taste good
We tried to tell him, but I guess there are some things in life you have to figure out for yourself.  ;)

These people came along and found at least 2 sea turtle nests on the beach.  Very exciting!

Today I prepared 4 boxes to take over to the hospital (since Ada would be 4 years old) for parents who are there to deliver stillborn babies.  Each one has a blanket to wrap up their baby with, a book that really helped me, a journal, a handprint mold kit, and a candle to burn in their baby's memory.  I have thought about doing this in years past, but this will be the first time I've actually done it.  I really hate the thought of these boxes ever being used, but I do hope it helps parents who have to go through this painful process.

Dinosaur birthday party

We celebrated Eleanor's birthday a little early today with a dinosaur birthday party.  She was thrilled!!  I got there early to set up and when she arrived later she spent about 10 minutes walking around and taking everything in.  At one point I found her standing next to the cake, just staring at it with a huge smile on her face.

Come on in!

She requested these three dinosaurs on her cake

Pretzel stick pterodactyl nests with grape eggs

Hamosaurus sandwiches

Cheese stegosaurus spikes

T-Rex watermelon

(tutorial here)

Veggies, dip, and baguettes

Fossil sugar cookies

Dinosaur tails for everyone!

Swamp punch - the added lime sherbert made it extra swampy looking

Arthur loved the mirror

How many dinosaurs can fit in the little baby pool?

Eleanor sang the Happy Birthday song along with everybody else!

Mmm, cake!

Dinosaur baseball

(T ball with tails as bats)

Slipping into a sugar coma

Present time!

Sweet friends

Arthur enjoyed the party, too

Creating new dinosaurs

Because who doesn't love gluing feathers and pom poms?

All worn out!

Four years ago today I got the news that Ada no longer had a heartbeat at 23 weeks 5 days.  Today I got to watch the pure joy on Eleanor's face as we celebrated her three years of life.  What a day!