: )

Happy Birthday to my sweet and special girl. I can't believe this time 4 years ago, I had no idea today would be the day I would finally meet her scrunched up red little face and my life would be changed forever just as it was over 9 years ago when T1 arrived. She was so eager to embrace the world that I didn't even need to push her out, one grunt and there she was (if only the rest of the labour had been that easy lol!). In the early weeks she cried and cried, if only I had known she was simply hungry even though all I seemed to do was feed her. It took a while and what felt like constant nursing to get her back to her birth weight but eventually we made it. before long we were rewarded with smiles meant only for us - a reminder that all the tears of the early weeks - both hers and mine were worth it.
Now, she is readying for Kindergarten in just a few short weeks, her back pack and lunch bag already purchased. She's ready. I am not. She's funny, cheeky, full of drama and has fully mastered the art of whining and sulking, she loves my company and wants us to chat all the time. She has created 2 new words "Betwards" and "Benext", both seem to mean in close proximity to but are clearly to be used in different situations. She loves pink and purple, friends, animals both real and the toy kind, she misses Huds the dog a lot. She seems to worry a lot that she doesn't yet know what she wants to be when she grows up.
T1 has a lisp. When we named her, my Mum loved the name but voiced that she hoped she disn't have a lisp as there's an s in it. Sure enough this wriggly red faced baby was a tongue thruster and continues to be. Nearly every picture of her as a baby has her little tongue poking out at the top of her mouth. This will be addressed when school starts - in some ways if it stops, I will miss it - it is part of her.
Long gone are the days of nursing (she quit of her own accord the week she turned one - when offered one day, she looked at me as if to say "what are you doing, put it away" and that was that), diapers, nap time diapers, naps, crib, stroller, soothers, crawling, baby steps, pureed food (that at all times had to contain sweet potatoes, even though she was turning orange), highchair, baby swing, infant car seat, chubby thighs and wrists, red teething cheeks, drool and on the shoulder burps. One thing still remains and that is her pink blankie, bought by Grandma when we went to Disneyworld when she was 4 months old - a pack of pretty receiving blankets but she only ever wanted the pink one. It's still intact and 'she' (apparently!) sleeps with T2 every night.
The pink blankie has been joined by long complicated conversations,imaginary games, chosen friends, a love of chili (but not many other foods and she wouldn't even taste sweet potato now), terms of endearment towards her (she 'owns' the name sweet pea - my fave flower- and doesn't like anyone else to be called it), terms of endearment from her - she has taken to calling me things like "my sweet lov-e-lyyyy", "sweet heart" and "my special girl". She's both highly independent and needy. When she wants something, she wants it that second. She doesn't want to be grow up fast or be taller and wants to stay little. If only it were possible to slow down time but all there is to do is savour these moments while she is little and to try and remember them when she's a challenging teenager!

I knew my life would be changed when she arrived - I just didn't realize how much.

Happy 4th Birthday Sweet Pea. xoxox