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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Toots turns three!

We're working on holding up three fingers...

My girl is three today!  How can this be??  This exact time three years ago Toots had only been in the world for all of twenty minutes.  Now, I can't even imagine what we did without her.


What do I say about Toots at age three?  She is absolutely, positively a "personality."  A personality that continues to grow each year.  She is tiny body and big hair.  Little voice with big words.  Easy and complicated all in one.


She is funny.  Hilarious even.  Her facial expressions and comedic timing are spot on, reinforcing my belief that these things tend to come more naturally than not.  I certainly didn't teach her any of it.  She uses grown up phases and expressions, complete with very grown up mannerisms.  She is watching and repeating everything, something I need to remember when I speak.

We're big on purses these days.  And heels of course.

We are currently in a "beautiful" phase.  Every day she asks to wear a "twirly dress."  Her criteria for what constitutes as a twirly dress is strict.  Unless it flairs when she spins it will not be worn.  My sister, thankfully got her five more twirly dresses for her birthday so we have some new options.  Then she puts on her "beautiful shoes" (pink sparkly shoes with bows, of course).  Because of her desire to wear her beautiful shoes every waking minute we had to make the rule that beautiful shoes could only be worn indoors, like slippers, so that she could wear them, but not track mud all through our house.  But don't worry. She now carries them with her in her hot pink purse whenever we go out.  All she requested for her birthday was another pink phone and a pink tutu.  My mom had purple tulle on hand to make the tutu and we tried to convince her that she really wanted purple instead of pink.  But she would. not. be. swayed.  And of course, her beloved Noni obliged.

A girl, her tutu, some music and a microphone.  All she needs in life.

This girl is a natural performer.  Every day she asks to play "Let It Go" and then performs the whole song, singing every word and even including the part where Elsa pulls down her hair and lets loose.  Toots makes sure to put her hair in a pony tail or headband before she begins her song so she can whip it off in dramatic fashion.  For her birthday she received a CD player, some Disney CD's and the piece d'resistance, a Frozen microphone.  In the 15 hours she's owned these items we've watched approximately one thousand performances of "Let It Go" and "Part of Your World", while wearing her pink tutu, of course.


She continues to be unafraid of herself, a prayer I've had for her since she grew in my womb.  She may be sassy and quick to putting on an extreme attitude, but she is just as quickly able to swing to silly, and happy and sweet.  She loves her siblings and knows how to push their buttons- as only a middle child can.  She is utterly charming and knows how to work a room.

I love her more fiercely and completely than I rationally understand.  She is like me in so many ways.  In this I understand her more clearly and also clash with her more strongly.  In an instant I can go from infuriated to completely melted with love.  She fascinates me and softens me.  She is just so stinkin' great.

Our family works with her.  Every day I feel more and more honored to be her mom.  I can't wait to see what she does with this big, brutiful life.

Happy third birthday Toots!  We love you so much.







Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Five is going to be my most favorite...

We are a few weeks away from Powell family birthday month.  My kids were all born between April 29th and May 20th (I know, terrible planning on my part- though due to some late arrivals it wasn't exactly planned that way), so for three weeks straight we are in full on birthday mode.  Toots turns three, Monster, five, and Red has survived one whole year with these crazies!

I’m excited for Red to turn one and move out of baby stage.  Unfortunately, if the past few weeks of crazy behavior are any indication, three may be worse than two for my Toots girl.  But Monster turning five is going to be pretty life changing I think.

I’ve already noticed a shift in him recently that makes me think five may just be my most favorite age.  He’s reasonable, quickly snapping out of bad moods with rational conversation.  He gets stuff in a deeper way.  His little faith has started to blossom as he asks us big questions about God and then tells us he’s going to his room to pray.  And he can do stuff.  Yesterday he rode his bike all the way to the library and back, a little over a mile each way.  This morning he prepared his breakfast all by himself.

It’s the sweetness that’s killing me though.  All of a sudden it’s like he’s taken love potion.  He comes and gives me hugs unprompted constantly.  He’s full of compliments and kind words for me.  And somehow, somewhere he learned to be really grateful for all sorts of everyday things I do.

I mean, come on.  So sweet. 

I suspect he learned that gratitude from school.  This past week has been “week of the young child” which seems to really be “week we teach young children not to be ungrateful a-holes.”  Either way I’m all for it.  Every day he’s come home with notes for Tommy and me. 

new favorite song.
And he learned the “thank you parents song” which I now request him to sing on the regular.

I’m telling you this age, combined with a school that’s teaching him the really important things in life, is making my week.  I want to bottle his sweetness up and save it for when he’s 16 and pissed that I won’t let him borrow the car. 


And for those of you in the throws of the terrible twos and threes- it gets so much better.  I promise.  Five is going to be awesome-sauce.