April 18, 2016

We got to celebrate Bethany's 3rd birthday today.
I have no more babies!  Its official.  Its as official as that we had to pay full price for her at the zoo because she is considered a child not a toddler.

The morning Jake went to work and the kids went to school and Bethany, Marianne and I prepped for the party.  Beth has been talking about her party for a long time "I am going to blow the fire" she would say " i got to get zoo cups and zoo plates and zoo forks"  She knows how a party works.  She actually asked for a monkey birthday- but I thought that might be because that is what she had last year- so we made it a zoo party instead.  We worked in the morning to make the cake, and put out all the decorations she got to pick out at the store.  That was pretty fun. The kids in the morning had decorated the living room in stuffed animals like a zoo.  I had filled her room the night before with balloons.  Then we watched cartoons and played until noon when Jake brought the kids home and we started the party.
She opened presents first.  A puzzle, some water toys, some clothes.  The big hit was the lego set Jake told me to get her.  She opened it up and said in a sing song "I got Legos!  I got Le-e-e-gos!"  and "I got a vehicle" in the lego set.  It was a zoo lego set- her favorite things by far.
Then she got to do her cake.  She blew out her three candles and enjoyed licking the frosting off the giraffe we had put on the cake.  She kept saying all morning and all day "its my birthday" in a little sing song too.

After cake we packed up and went to the zoo.  On the way we had special zoo animal crackers for the ride.  She examined each and dictated what she wanted to see at the zoo from there.  She sang in the car "Today is my birthday!" What else would you do on a zoo birthday.
She loved the zoo.  She wore a safari zoo keeper hat the entire time really the entire day and looked adorable in her new zebra jumpsuit I bought just for the day.  And on the way kept saying she was going to not use the key to let the lions out.  She wanted to see giraffes and zebras and so we did.  And much much much more.  When we saw the tigers she started singing "lions and tigers and bears oh my" and did that for about ten minutes.  She got to ride the carosel- she picked the peacock, than she got to walk along side a peacock for some time.  Most the day she was animated running and delighted.  The kids were all over nice to her too.  Kate gave her a sucker she had in her pocket from school, Marianne gave her a bracket she was wearing, Sam gave her his map when she ripped hers and ran and ran with dad to get carousel tickets.    They all catered to her and so did we.  At the end she got to pick a toy from the zoo store and she picked a giraffe.  I knew it was hard for Mari to not be jealous too, but she wasn't.

We left the zoo and went to dinner and Zupas where she got several things but mostly loved the tomato soup.  At home everyone played animals and legos with her until bed time, where she requested I sing her Happy Birthday like a Kangaroo- so I sang "hop hop hop hop to hop" and she thought it was hilarious so we did it over and over again until it was time for sleeping.

Beth is such a joy to have in our family.  She is also very much  a mix of her older sisters.  This year she has become happy and joyful and loving.  She is always cuddling me up and saying to me "you are my mom mom" and "I'm going to cuddle you up" and doing just that.  She is a lover but also full of spirit and determination.  She happily plays and plays all day with siblings, with toys.  She loves books and cooking and playing outside- she wants to play outside everyday.  She loves cartoons, and attention from siblings and anything they let her play.  She loves singing and dancing and mom tucking her in at night.  She loves her friends and her whole world is our family and it shows.  She is brave.  Brave when she plays, brave with animals like the new chickens, brave with meeting people and going to nursery without a worry.  In fact she "loves my class" to nursery.  Last week I had to take her to the hospital for dumb tummy trouble.  She charmed everyone there with her pleasant conversation, animated stories and happy demeanor.  That is her.  Most everything is the best, she is grateful and loving and happy, with a little side of toughness and stubborn.  I think she is the most adorable 3 year old in existence, and also the smartest.  People often ask her age because she talks like some five year olds we know.  She is silly.  Oh so silly. Sometimes we have to tell her to not be silly because all the time is silly.  She in an effort to help this all on her own says "help us to be safe and calm" in every single prayer she says though nobody ever taught her that.   She is the first kid I remember to have an imaginary friend.  It is a moose- a spirit moose maybe because she is always saying he died in a waterfall, and she blames him for messes and injuries and mischief.    There is a moose statue in park city where we go shopping and to the movies sometimes- she says that is him.  She loves animals, every day she tells me I am a mommy and she is the baby of a series of animals, dragons, horses, kangaroos, puppies, kitties.  She loves when I play along. I am loving watching her grow and learn and I honestly enjoy spending every day with her.  We love you Bethany!