happy birthday, baby girl

After what seemed like a celebration of Sophia for almost a week, Sophia officially turned four today. And while she reminds me that she is no longer a baby girl, I can't help but still call her that sometimes. I had always hoped and wished that I would have a daughter when I had children, and I was over the moon when we found out we were having a girl when I was pregnant with Sophia.

At four, she is the consummate girly girl--she loves twirly dresses, sparkly and strappy shoes, purses, painted nails, and lip gloss. She believes in fairy tales (although she does not like the bad guys in them, especially Rasputin, Maleficent, and evil stepmothers) and that mommy and daddy kisses and My Little Pony bandaids (and bandaids in general) are magical and cures all things. She still loves all things pink and purple and is genuinely surprised when someone gives her something that is pink and purple ("how in the world did they know pink and purple are my favorite colors??"). She's still our sleep superstar who tells us that she's tired and needs to take a nap (if Naomi would only take her lead...). And like her dad, Sophia truly believes there is a dessert space in her stomach that must be attended to and filled up after every meal, including breakfast. She still sleeps with Bear and looks for him whenever she is sad, tired, sleepy, and everything in between.

Since her birthday party on Saturday, Sophia has enjoyed quite the week of celebrating. On Sunday, Greg's family came over for dinner and the kids got to play with their cousins. Among her presents--violin lessons, which Sophia has been asking for for months. On Monday, we went out to Naperville and spent the day with my brother and his family, and celebrated Sophia's birthday and Ethan's birthdays with a delicious lunch and more presents. Of course, we also got rear-ended on our way there, but that's actually not that exciting. On Tuesday, Barbie was sweet and brought Sophia a fabulous art kit, which the kids have used to make some super cute pictures. Barbie is great about doing lots of art projects with the kids and they love to draw, color and paint! And today, Sophia received a package from Halmoni and Harabuji.

See the row of baby clothes hanging on the bulletin board behind Sophia and Christine? The Upstairs Green Room had a week about their life as babies and everyone brought in a baby photo and a baby outfit. Sophia's picture is above the little purple dress just above the blue chair.

A bunch of little preschool cobras

Greg and I took the morning off and we celebrated the day by taking treats to her preschool class--chocolate donuts--and staying for their yoga class. There are few things cuter than a bunch of three- and four-year olds doing yoga. Sophia's choice for dinner that evening was pizza bagels, strawberries, and blueberries.

Sophia has been looking forward to this day for months and months. It must be so hard to look forward to something when you don't quite grasp the concept of days and months. We are so lucky to have her as a part of our family--she is fiercely loyal to her family and friends and when she tells us that she loves us and gives us a smile and a hug, it just makes you want to squeeze her and eat her up. It's hard to ever imagine our lives without her.

a celebration of sophia

We started our celebration of Sophia's birthday with a birthday party with her friends at Gymboree. She had been anticipating her birthday for months and she was so excited for her party day. Up until now, Sophia just had parties with family and a few friends at home, so we decided that it was time for Sophia to have a big party that she had asked for and let her have a special day of her own. (I have to admit that I was personally excited to host a birthday party that did not involve cleaning my house and doing much of anything other than showing up and bringing the birthday girl.) Sophia chose to have a prince and princess dress-up theme party (and cake) and I think she was pretty satisfied with the way things turned out. Nicholas had invited a couple of his friends who had siblings who were friends with Sophia, and despite his initial concern that he was too grown-up for Gymboree, he and his friends also had a great time (and even dressed up!).

When Sophia's friends started to arrive, she saw that they brought presents, and came up to me and said, "Look, mommy, presents. Who are they for?" She was pretty excited when I told her they were for her. After two hours of jumping and running around, we had cake and snacks and wrapped things up. It was great--the kids had a fun time and it was also nice for us to have a chance to catch up with some friends and most importantly, not clean up. Sophia chose dinner that evening...at McDonald's...and came home and opened presents from her friends. She was SO tired that she didn't even put up a fight when we told her it was time for bed and she could play with her toys the next day.

sophia ballerina

Sophia's ballet class - she's on the first row, second from the left. Her teacher, Ms. Allyson, is in the middle with the pianist. It is such a cute, cute class. This Saturday is their spring concert and Sophia's class will be frogs. A bunch of little frogs hopping around. Super cuteness.

delayed easter photos

Love these monkeys.And their dad.
Naomi thinks Nicholas (not in the picture, obviously) is hilarious.
Happy I finally have a picture of Greg's parents with the monkeys.

a mother's day morning

Naomi woke up again this morning at 5:30 a.m. That's two days in a row that Gnomers has slept in past 4:45 a.m. She must have known it was Mother's Day. Like most mornings, Greg went and got her, gave her a bottle, and took her and the others downstairs to get cracking on my breakfast. Nicholas and Sophia think it's so much fun to bring me breakfast in bed. Sometime around 6:30 a.m., I got up and went to the bathroom, and I could hear Nicholas creeping upstairs and then saying, "Dad! It's not Sophia, it's Mom! She's awake!! She can't come downstairs or it'll ruin the surprise!" Apparently, Sophia was still sleeping and I wasn't supposed to know that they were making me breakfast. So like the good mother that I am, I roll back into bed and burrow back under the covers to the warm part of the bed.

About an hour later, I hear the giggling as they bring up breakfast. Chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, apples and oranges, and a icy cold Diet Coke. My kids know their mama well. Nicholas carrying the breakfast tray and Sophia carrying a pile of presents they had been working on at their schools and after school at home. Nicholas made a bowl with recycled paper, and Sophia made a purse with a graham cracker box. Super cute--my favorite presents so far. And lots of pictures and cards. I told them I'd take them to work. They love it when I take their things for my office. I love having their things in my office because on my bad days, they remind me of what is important and puts things in perspective.

Naomi crawls over to me and proceeds to reach for my chocolate chip pancakes. I try to break off the non-chocolate parts for her. She eats a whole pancake (they weren't very big) and then reaches and grabs a handful of scrambled eggs. She snuggles back and finishes her bottle. After 30 seconds, she crawls over and grabs Nicholas's recycled bowl (now filled with mini chocolate chip muffins from Sophia's graham cracker box purse) and tries to eat the bowl.

Since she woke up so early, Naomi goes down for a nap at 8:00 a.m. Nicholas and Sophia then join me in bed with their breakfast and eat. Then they go off to take showers and I am left alone in bed to eat my breakfast and read a book--a true luxury--while Greg goes downstairs to clean up the kitchen.

If my day ended there, it would have been a perfect day. Not that the rest of the day wasn't just as good. We went to church and Greg got to stay with us for Sacrament Meeting--Justin made arrangements for Elders Quorum so he and Greg could be with family today. Super. We miss him at church. Naomi took an afternoon nap for almost an hour and half and Greg came home early. Super super. Then we went to dinner with Greg's parents and his sister's family. A little late for Gnomes, but it was fun and we had a great time together. One of the most fun dinners we had together. When we got home, Greg put the kids to bed as he does almost every night while I talked to my parents. Super super super.

It's not easy to be a mother, and I have my moments when I worry that I'm not good enough. Or patient enough. Or fun enough. Or ___ enough. But at the end of the day, I am humbled to have been blessed with my sweet husband and three fabulous and healthy children who remind me how lucky I am to be a part of their lives.

the laughing gnome

While Greg was in Ann Arbor at a conference and Nicholas and Sophia were at Navy Pier with Greg's parents, Naomi and I had some good times together. It helped that on Saturday, she actually took two good naps. At one point when I was feeding her, I did a fake laugh and she thought that was the funniest ever. And somewhere in there, she also does her growl. Yes, the Gnome growls on command. Don't mind the food smeared on her face.

i told you she was loud

Nicholas and I were going through the flashcards from the cameras and came across this little bit of juice today. See, didn't I say she was loud from the start? She still sounds like that, except louder and a bit more forthright. You see, the Gnome owns her crying.