Mary's three!

My Littlest Girl,

Today you are three! You learned how to say your birthday a few months ago - "My birfday is July sisteen." You proceed to tell everybody. In the line at the grocery store, to all kinds of random people - real and imaginary - on your personal cell phone and my personal favorite, to the Spanish speaking yard guy who may have thought you were requesting princess shaped bushes.

You still have MANY 'terrible two' moments. Which will all change today, right? RIGHT? You FLIP OUT out for reasons such as these. Makes me want to drink, just thinking about it, which is a bad idea on several counts (namely it's 4am and we'd all prefer your brother to have a decent IQ and not twitch) - so let's instead focus on your immense cuteness, of which there is plenty of.

You're free with compliments. You love my "lipstick, earrings, toes, teeth, clothes, smile, belly, purse, dish..." You name it, you love it. You'd think that would get old, you complimenting everything all. the. time. But it doesn't, I take you at your word and it never fails to make me smile. Except that one time when you loved my pimple. Geez.

You adore the pool and are always wanting to "catch Daddy". We never correct you saying it's the other way around, because we all know who wears the cute little skirts in the relationship. When you're in the mood to swim, you get nekkid, grab your suit, get your earplugs and plop them in my lap for a subtle hint. You jump in the pool, arms and legs flying, huge smile on your face - and swim your little heart out. You're brave enough now to jump in by yourself, over and over again with no one to catch. You love to push your sisters in the pool at which time you all have a good laugh and then nicely demand popsicles.

You love having control over something - being in charge of turning the tv off (less the part about the tv actually being off), getting something I asked for, carrying towels to the pool, whatever. Because I mentioned I couldn't find it within earshot of you, last night you spent 15 minutes looking for a grater (as in cheese). You had no idea what a grater was, but you were on a quest. After an exhaustive search, you solicited help from Coco. "Coco, can you please help me find Mama's thing stuff?" Never did find my thing stuff.

You: love eggs, can't get enough D-d-d-d-d-Dora, prefer shoes that are too big for you, hop when excited, like to change clothes multiple times daily, need but don't like naps, give the best hugs, eat enough for a teenager, have the best sideways smile, talk constantly, like to chase your sisters, have a love/hate relationship with ponytails, love to be read to, call me Mama, say "boogeries!" when you need to blow your nose, rise with the roosters, love to get mail, are fickle, say hi to every stranger you see, constantly ask for milk and don't drink it, demand company in the bathroom for just the first two seconds, have never had your hair cut, pronounce yellow 'yey-yow', love babies, are adored.

The depth of love I have for you still amazes me. Until you experience a mother's love, you can never know... I can get all gushy just thinking about you, I literally feel an ache in my heart (is it possible to love too much?) and I often tip-toe in to watch you sleep, you're such a lovely sleeper. You've been around three years now; I had lived 32 years without you and yet it's unimaginable how that was possible. All those years, and I never knew I wasn't whole.

As you like to say, I love you all the way over there,

Mama