Dear Sweet Baby of Mine,

I know, I know, you’re not a baby anymore. You remind me of that often. But you’ll always be My Baby. You have brought so much joy to our family in the last three years. Your sweet smile and giggly laugh are contagious. Your eyes twinkle when you smile just like your Daddy’s. God has truly given you such a warm loving spirit and it shows in everything you do. I love that you love to cuddle as much as you do. It just melts my heart when you snuggle in next to me and say “Mommy, I want chu”.

You are a lover of music. You sing and dance constantly and are always asking me to play your cd’s in the car. You especially love Laurie Berkner, Sesame Street and most recently, the Wiggles. However, Sesame Street still gets played the most out of all of them. You and Ernie both have a deep love for your rubber duckies.

I got a sweet compliment about you at church yesterday. The classroom workers said you are the most well behaved, sweetest kid they have in class. I gave a nervous laugh and said thank you thinking they must say that to everyone but they both piped up and said, no really, we mean that. You are so sweet to your friends. You’re only three so sharing is still an issue at times but if someone is crying, you’re the kid who goes up and wants to know what’s wrong and tells them its going to be ok. Let’s see, your best friends are Abby, Zander, Jake Jake, and Kellan. You and Abby and Zander are inseparable at school.

At three you know your ABC’s and know what sound most of the letters make (thank you Word World!). You can count to 20 but for some reason you don’t like the number 16. You really do have nice manners for a toddler always saying please and thank you. You loooove puzzles! You have several 25 piece puzzles hidden under your crib and they are pulled out and played with daily. Your Great Uncle Bill thinks you may have engineering skills after watching you figure out where each piece goes. Maybe that means you’ll be good at math too. Let’s hope so! You love the computer and play on your Noggin games or on Sesame Street .com every day. You can navigate those websites almost as well as your Sissy. You adore your Rose Petal Cottage and your baby dolls / stuffed animals. You are always putting someone down for a nap, feeding them breakfast, or changing a diaper. Your imaginary world is so fun to be a part of!

You and Kayla are best buddies. I love watching the two of you all sleepy eyed in the morning, curled up in your blankets in front of the TV watching Curious George. Your Sissy is a great helper and loves to make your breakfast and play with you and she’s even trying to help you get potty trained…. yeah, that’s a slow going process but we’re gonna keep working on it. They won’t let you into kindergarten in diapers Kiddo!

This has been a hard year for us all as Daddy is away a lot and we’re still trying to get the house ready to sell. You’ve learned what it means to miss someone and it breaks my heart to hear you say you want Daddy. I do too sweetie. I do too. We’ll all be back together soon. Yesterday you woke up before he left. I think he was happy to be able to give you another birthday hug. I know how sad he is not to be able to be with you today. He has his phone alarm set for 1:30 though so that he can be on the phone with us at 1:33. Your Daddy is sweet like that. We’re all just so blessed.

My Gracie Girl, Graceapottamus, Gracie Bear Bear, you are loved. My cup runneth over with love for you my sweet Baby girl. Happy Happy Happy Birthday. May all your dreams come true.

Love,
Mama