She's still 3 ...

First Birthday

2nd Birthday

3rd Birthday

for about an hour. On days when I feel really down about how old she's getting I pull the old "it's just an estimated birth date" out of my hat and think ... WELLLLLL maybe they were a few weeks off.

so tonight I stay up late getting things ready for her big day tomorrow. I want to decorate her doorway, decorate the house and make her lunch with surprises. Instead of more time together on her special day we actually have less because I have to be to work early so she gets dropped off at a friends house who will give her breakfast and bring her to preschool. After school we turned an evening of babysitting into a birthday party. We'll have pizza and cake.

i had Auntie Jen watch Lucy for a bit before she (Jen) had to go to pub quiz. I wanted to surprise her with helium balloons in her bedroom. I bought a couple balloons and left them in the car. After dinner I remembered that I forgot to pick up our roses. Every year on Lucy's birthday we buy a red rose for her Ethiopian mommy, a pink rose for her Ethiopian grandma and a yellow rose for her Ethiopian father. This is a tangible way we can talk about them and about Lucy's birth and honor her first family. I didn't want to leave these out especially this year as Lucy is starting to remember stuff. So we headed out to buy flowers, in our car, with the surprise balloons "hidden" in the front seat. GREAT.

Hopefully a more reflective post will come in the next day or two. She's so old now.