Happy Birthday, Baby!

The much anticipated birthday has now come and gone.  I now have two three year olds in the house, which is a stage I like for ease of answering the question, "How many children do you have?" A six year old and 2 three year olds.  I like the confusion that poses people, especially now that they're basically the same height.  Many times, I'm asked: "Are they twins?"  Twice in the last week, Iz has impishly responded "Yeth!" and then run on her merry way.  Not knowing the people who were asking, I didn't bother to correct Iz's answer.  I love the shock value of it all. :)

She enjoyed a special breakfast and a morning gift (it seems that we can never have enough stuffed kitties in our house!).  With A at school, I took the other two to KidCity - an indoor play place.  They had a blast while I tried, unsuccessfully, to read a book.

They were pretty pooped by the time we were ready to leave!  

Throughout the day, we enjoyed numerous phone calls from family members, not to mention the gift of Skype.  How fun to open gifts with the giver watching from 2300 kilometres away!  Thanks to all of you who remembered Iz and send your love her way.  She was thrilled with each phone call and sang "Happy Birthday" to herself all day! (Not that you should feel badly if you didn't remember, call or write!).

Our friend and neighbour, Sue, came over with her daughters for a laid-back dinner.  Not able to get out that day for whipping cream, the double layered cake as planned just got a single one.  Not super pretty, but my kids have low expectations from me in this department! 

It's amazing how quickly three years have gone by with such a fun, sweet and quirky little person in our family.  On her birthday, I always recall answering a friends' question in January 2009:  "So, do you feel like your family is complete now?"  With 3 1/2 year old miracle #1 swirling around me and 7 month old miracle #2 in my arms, it felt rather greedy and thankless to answer, "Well, no.  I still feel that there is someone missing.  <pause>  I'd like her to be a little First Nations girl."  And within a month, voila!  It was an exchange of sleep for a cute baby, but . . . we couldn't imagine life without our zesty miracle #3!  She's worth celebrating!  And like any other pre-schooler, she loved being celebrated.  We thank God, again, for the gift of being family together.