Happy 3rd Bea Day!

My Beautiful Beatrice,

You are three years old today. I can hardly believe that you have been in our lives for three whole years. You never cease to amaze me. You are so uniquely you. There is no other way to say it. You are boisterous, yet shy. You are generous, yet possessive. You are happy, yet brooding. You are behaving much in the way most toddlers do. It changes one minute to the next. I think you are preparing us for your teenage years. It's not a coincidence that you came into this world during the Academy Awards. You have won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Drama three years in a row. You're a shoe-in.

You've been up to some adorable antics lately. The latest is that you now give out compliments unprompted. Just this morning, you proclaimed "Mama you make the best cancakes (pancakes.)" Sometimes you'll say to your father "Daddy, I like that shirt. Is it new?" How sweet.

You also into sharing your loving words. Your favorite line is "I love you too." You open with that which is fabulous. Its presupposes that the other person was going to say I love you first so you beat them to the 'too' part. And sometimes when me or Daddy beat you to the "I love you" you'll offer up a "Thanks" in return. Let's hope you get that out of your system before you meet your soul mate.

You are still a little smarty pants. In the middle of the night I went into your room to check on you and found white smushy doll stuffing all over the ground. Your poor little doll lay deflated on the ground next to the white mound. I said "Beatrice, what happened to your doll?" Still half asleep you groggily replied "She was cold. She had too much smow (snow) in her belly." Oh, of course.

You are a great big sister. Some of my favorite moments happen while I observe you and your brother interacting when you can't see me. I'll stand in the doorway, out of sight, and watch you lean towards him encouraging him "Don't worry, brudder. I'm here." Those moments make up for all the times when you give him an extra nudge or take something away from him.

This afternoon I looked through all of the photos of your first three years. You have changed so much yet you've stayed just the same. From the moment you were born, I knew you'd be a little spitfire. You have not disappointed.

I love you, princess. Thank you for being my my daughter and my best friend.