three years old

diane turned three today. i can't believe it. she has really hit a developmental/growth spurt lately and she feels so old all of a sudden. randy keeps scooping her up and telling her to stop growing. she's leaving that squishy toddler stage and starting to say more grown up phrases and act older. still a toddler, but barely. she is her own little personality and it's fun to see it as she grows up. 

these are a bunch of pictures from opening presents this morning. madeleine was right in there and we finally had to tell her she couldn't stand next to diane if she didn't let diane open her own presents. let's just say she had a hard time having the focus not be on her. this afternoon, she said, "where are diane's other presents?" at first i thought that it was a commentary on how many presents diane got and thought that was odd. i told her there weren't any more and she said, "no, the ones she opens at night!" then i realized that she was referring to how presents work on her birthday. i reminded her that not everyone's birthday starts with christmas presents and ends with birthday presents. diane gets all of hers in the morning.

madeleine showing diane the book she made her. it has a picture of diane and a number three on the front.

showing diane the mermaids (notice there are two? how convenient!) that madeleine picked out at the dollar store for diane.

diane showing off the bracelet and ring from the petersen family. i just like that she looks like she's singing "i'm a little teapot."

 

later in the day, we decorated diane's cake. i went to frost it and it started tearing up the top of the cake. frosting fail. so, the cake was really beautiful. fortunately, diane didn't seem to care one bit. she was just excited to put sprinkles on it.

i love the sheer joy on her face here. i made a dress for diane to match the one i made madeleine for her birthday. of course, they had to be twins today.

this was the finished product on the cake. the girls each ate about half of a little piece. none of us are big cake people and always end up throwing about 2/3 of it out, but the girls love the concept of making and decorating a birthday cake and then singing and blowing out a candle and insist on doing it for each other. cheap thrills.

 

i love this girl.

here are the two parts of her birthday video interview. it's pretty long, but she sings in it and is pretty cute all around.