A Once in a Lifetime Easter Birthday - Ruthie turns 3!

Ruthie had the blessing this year to celebrate her 3rd birthday and Easter on the same day! This won't happen again until she's 200 something (thanks Wikipedia) so I think it is safe to say it was a once in a lifetime chance which we fully embraced! 

This little girl is 3 years old!

We had a full on Easter themed birthday party complete with Peeps cake, Easter cookies, Easter egg truffles, Peep S'Mores, carrot cake cupcakes and candy galore! I may have gone a bit overboard on the sweets- oops! Not sorry :) 

As I've reminisced in recent posts this last year was quite awesome with many milestones and accomplishments, so much growing up! From toddler to little girl, from crib to big bed, diapers to potty trained, pacifiers to none, attitude to more attitude and opinions on everything! She's the puzzle master, loves trains, books, the library, playing at any and all playgrounds. Loves to eat and help in the kitchen- especially smoothies! 

I'm so blessed to get the one on one time with Ruthie that I do get and this year is bittersweet as in a few short months she won't be the sole child in my universe anymore. She will always have a special place in my heart as the little baby girl who made me a mother and continues to teach me more about myself than she'll ever know. 

Love you my 3 year old sweetie! 

Big Girl

This morning I looked down at Ruthie and thought with sadness how BIG she looks- like such a little girl now!

Duh, it's nothing new to anyone else looking in but for me and especially with a few things that she's grown out of lately (diapers, paci, some clothes) she is just seeming so grown up- SOB! It probably doesn't help, either, that I went through some baby clothes this weeend and they are SO TINY! She is going to look huge compared to this baby we bring home in June. 

 Ruthie's coming home outfit- so teensie! 

In the last month or so we completely got rid of diapers at night and she's been totally accident free and going strong! She hadn't peed in her diaper at night for months prior so it was more of a security thing (for laundry purposes) to even have her wearing one at night. She started really fighting it and not wanting to have one at night so one night we just decided ok- why fight it?!! Most mornings this does make for an early 530/6am "DADDY/MOMMY I HAVE TO GO POTTY!!!" wake up call but we are happy to run and take her as the pay off for such a successful totally potty trained all day and night in 6 months feat. And she does still go to bed before 8pm so we can't complain too much!

Also last Wednesday she and I got home from work and daycare and she disappeared into her room for a bit. I found her in the baby room putting all her pacifiers from her bed into the crib in the new baby's room and declaring, "I'm a big girl, I don't need my paci's so I will give them to the baby!" (side note: she often will take things of hers and throw them in the crib in the new baby room 'giving' them to baby as she doesn't need them anymore). She had toyed with this idea a couple times before and I had planted the thought about giving them up and getting something really special but she had always then jokingly grabbed them back and we didn't push it. 

But this time I set her down and we had a serious talk about really giving them up and what that would mean. I told her she would never have them again because she is a big girl and to celebrate that we could the next day go to Target and pick out ANYTHING she wanted for a special treat! I was serious, I would have paid something stupid but luckily we ended up with this: 

and spent only $20! 

Ever since she hasn't thought too much about them but at night as we are reading and singing our goodnight book and song she will sometimes say in her funny way, "Where's my paci? Oh yeah, I'm a big girl, I don't need it!" She is a bit more restless at naptime and in the early morning when she would have otherwise been messing with them or sucking on them but like I said, we'll take that pay-off any day. I'm glad it is something we didn't push to have done by a certain time and in the end it was painless and her idea! 

As we approach her 3rd birthday I think I'm just feeling like I want to capture these fleeting moments of her as my baby girl even more. It's so hard yet so rewarding to watch these littles grow bigger. 

Ruthie Says

Our little almost 3 year old has been saying some pretty cute things lately and I wanted to jot them down before I forget! 

On a walk in the snow (while stopping in several random yards to do snow-angels) Ruthie notices the sky and exclaims, "When I lay like this I can see the sky! It's beautiful!" (of note: it was a cloudy gray day but made me think gosh, if we all had that optimism in the winter!)

Putting her lips on my growing belly, "I love you baby" 

While talking about baby..."I want a girl baby" "How does it get out?" I want a baby in my belly"
Ruthie what should we name the baby? "Princess Sandcastle!" Asked a different day and she responded, "Pizza!"

"I wish I were a bird so I could fly!" 

Singing..."God made everything beautifuuulllll!" I asked where she learned that song..." I made it up!"

Also we have a few inside jokes that she likes to tell me randomly or when she wants to distract or make me smile.

Background: There is a fantastic children's book called 'The Day the Crayons Quit' and the page about the peach crayon makes her laugh and laugh because his (the crayon's) wrapper gets peeled off leaving him naked and asking for underwear. So randomly she'll just look at me and say, "PEACH CRAYON!" and then we laugh and laugh. She likes to say this to strangers, too, who she fully expects to get the joke...but they don't.

Another Ruthie joke is, "The octopus tooted" because of an octopus bath toy that when squeezed underwater makes bubbles. So she'll whisper to me, "the octopus tooted!" and then giggles :)

And finally there is another joke involving another great book The Nuts: Bedtime at the Nuthouse and let's just say "Nut Butt" is Ruthie's favorite line in the book! She has a dance to go with it too.

What a cutie pie- these are the days!