Happy Third Birthday, Alaina!

Dear Alaina,

Happy third birthday, precious girl!! The past three years have FLOWN by. I can't believe you're three. March 8th three years ago was such a happy day. I had been on bedrest for three weeks leading up to your birth and was scheduled for an induction the next day. I really didn't want to be induced, so I was thrilled that you came on your own a day before the induction. You also came quickly and I survived natural childbirth! I was definitely on a high after that :) When you were born, you had a knot in your umbilical cord, and they told us that you were our miracle baby. That quickly put everything in perspective- as hard as three weeks of bedrest had been, you were here, you were safe, and you were oh so loved. I felt like I was floating on cloud nine all day after that!

Over the past three years, we've only fallen more and more in love with you every day and every year. You are just so. stinking. cute. You have the most friendly little personality. I love that you aren't shy and will talk and interact with pretty much anyone. And you definitely talk A LOT. You have THE loudest voice. Haha! We love hearing what you have to say! You keep us laughing!

It's interesting that you're so friendly and outgoing in social situations because you're actually a very timid child. You HATE to be tossed in the air or swung around. It really scares you. You won't even jump off of fairly short things... you want to hold our hand and step down gingerly. :)

You are a typical third child in that you do not know how to play independently or entertain yourself. You do NOT enjoy your alone time at all. If you don't nap during rest time, it's always a battle to keep you in your room and quiet. You whine the whole time about being by yourself and wanting Aubrey to come in there with you and asking if it's "morning time" yet over and over. You beg me to let you go into Jude's room with him. You like company, sweet girl!

Your absolute obsession right now is Frozen. You only watch the movie about once a week (on Mondays while Aubrey and Jude are at school- the movie scares Jude so we don't watch it while he's here), but you talk about Anna and Elsa NON stop. Your favorite is Elsa :) We listen to the Frozen soundtrack in the car all the time, and we have several Frozen books that we read daily. Interestingly, Frozen is the only movie that holds your attention the whole time. You will watch the beginning of other movies, but you usually get up and wander off after a little while.

You LOVE dress up clothes. LOVE THEM. If we're at home, you're pretty much guaranteed to be in dress up attire. And when you're dressed up, you BECOME that character. We better watch out if we slip up and call you by your real name... we WILL BE corrected ;) You are a shoe girl... dress up shoes and real shoes. You get this from your mommy :)

You love your siblings so much! You and Aubrey are enjoying sharing a room. I hope you girls will have many happy years in there together and be each other's best friends and confidants. You have a really sweet relationship with Jude, too. Y'all are actually the closest in age out of all of the kids, and you two usually get along really well. Y'all will go in Jude's room and play together for a long time regularly with very little fighting. Playing with you usually brings out a very sweet, gentle side of Jude, and I love hearing the two of you interacting. And of course you LOVE your baby sister, Francie! You've been such a sweet big sister for her! You haven't shown any jealousy towards her, and you love to hold her and give her the pacifier when she's fussing. I'm proud of the way you've adjusted to being a big sister.

If someone asks you a question, you ALWAYS say yes even if no would be the correct response. For example, you have been saying for a YEAR that you wanted a Minnie Mouse birthday party. The other day, Gramzie came over and we were talking about your birthday party. I said, "Alaina, are you having a Donald Duck party??" expecting you to correct me and tell Gramzie that you were having a Minnie Mouse party. You said, "Yes!" Haha!! I'm pretty positive that you don't even know who Donald Duck is! I guess you're just very agreeable ;) 

You're a really generous child. If you have a toy and one of your siblings asks nicely if they can have it, you almost always share. If they try to just snatch it away, though, WATCH OUT. You will defend what is yours. With shrieks and physical force.

I'm afraid you're a bit of a picky eater. Your FAVORITE thing is avocado. I will cut one up for you and you'll eat the whole thing by itself and ask for more. You also love cucumbers and peanut butter. And you have a huge sweet tooth like the rest of us that we have to work to reign in ;)

You have really sweet manners most of the time. At your party, the first present you opened was a box with an outfit in it. As soon as you got the wrapping paper off and saw the box you said, "Oh, I love it!" and then put the box aside ready to move on to the next one. Haha! You didn't even realize that there was something IN the box. I thought it was precious that you were so happy and appreciative of that box :) When you saw the clothes in the box, you exclaimed, "AWWWW!" in the cutest little sing song voice.

I could go on and on because you're such a delight to us and we love you so much. The past three years have been a joy. YOU are a joy. We can't wait to see what God has in store for your life. We pray that you will love Him with your whole heart and follow Him where ever He may lead you.

Happy birthday, LuLu!
Mommy