Happy 3rd Birthday, Livy Girl

My sweet Liv is now three. It’s hard to believe that not so long ago she changed our lives in a big way on that special day when she entered our cozy two person family – and the past three years have been somewhat of a blur of excitement, joy, patience, practice and unconditional love. Now it is even harder to imagine what life was like before her arrival.

Our kind, generous, spunky girl is growing up.

She has the most adventurous soul (even when it comes to eating!), prefers dancing to walking, has mastered the ‘furrowed brow’ when angry, loves her sister so much I worry her cuddles and hugs will leave marks.

When I wake up I am excited to meet a Livy smile and a crazy mane of bed head hair. I love her beautiful curly ringlets – especially after a bath and before I scoop them up into little piles of adorable pigtails on her head (if she lets me). Before we go to sleep each night she reads books with daddy and I tell her a story about sisters Princess Olive & Princess Teacup (she still hasn’t made the connection). Then we say our prayers and she tells me everything that she’s grateful for that day. She mentions things like ‘sunshine’ and ‘my new bed’ and ‘Bodie, our dog’.

I love that her favorite saying is ‘is that a great idea, mommy?’, as she propositions me for a fun activity or treat (I’ll admit that I give in often). I love that she scrunches her nose up when she says ‘silly goose’ (her new term for just about everything).

When she’s tired of me looking at the computer in the evening, she tells me that she has to ‘get some work done’ and turns it towards her to practice typing her name on the keyboard. One little index finger meets one key after another in a concentrated click, click, click.

I am a cuddler and I’ve done my best to raise a cuddler. I love it most when she asks if I’ll hold her and when she tells me ‘I love you, momma’ in her sweet, sincere little voice. I love when she draws circles on my arms out of habit because I’ve practiced that soothing technique for so long on her.

I have loved the journey.

Baby girl, I didn’t know what being a mom meant until I met you – I love you so much.

Liv’s birth story & newborn photos (still makes me sniffle! The photos for one reason, the birth story for another ;-)). Liv’s first year in a series of b&w photos with her giant bear.

PS there’s a chance that this post won’t load in half of the browsers out there because I’ve packed it SO full of pictures.