Happy Third Birthday, Adeline

​Our sweet girl turned three years old on November 13th! She's definitely had a full three years; some of the highlights include birth in an Army hospital (enough said!), one deployment, her baby dedication ceremony, four military moves, a spontaneous trip to California, looooots of G.I. and doctor appointments, and the birth of her brother.

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Adeline is such a unique and lovely person. She is the EPITOME of sweet and sassy. She overwhelms my heart with her kindness in one moment and then challenges me with her spunk in the next. Addie is shy if she's not comfortable with you, but then extremely exuberant if she knows you well. She enjoys learning new words and concepts and thrives on rules and organization. (Having a baby brother who can't understand the boundaries makes her rather frustrated!) As far as her favorites, she loves animals, art projects, chasing, eating, all things princess, other kids, church, the playground, baking, and dancing, dancing, and more dancing. ​

Every year I compose a movie of Addie's highlights. I love looking back on all her experiences and growth. Here's the video illustrating all that age two had to offer:

On Adeline's birthday, Tim started the morning off right with a trip to the donut shop. When he returned, the playroom was ready for her to start celebrating. We blew up a bunch of balloons, played music she likes to dance to, and turned on the dance light we bought for her party later that evening. The girl was in her element! Then, we opened presents (an Arial umbrella and Cinderella book). Later that morning, we headed to the zoo, per the birthday girl's request.

In the evening, we had all our family and Addie's friends over for a party. We wanted to celebrate Adeline in a way that she would really enjoy, and what does she love more than anything? Dancing! We turned the playroom into a glow-in-the-dark dance and bubble party. For her party, she chose a Cinderella theme, a balloon popping game, pizza for dinner, and a princess cupcake tower. I pulled up Pinterest for a few of the decorating and game ideas and let Addie choose what she wanted.  It was a really fun celebration!

After the party, Tim asked that we take a picture of the women in Addie's life. It's fun to see the generations together, and luckily, Addie even smiled! 

After all the festivities, it was time for Adeline's three year check up with her doctor. For the first time, she is in the 31st percentile in weight, the highest she's ever been;  the doctor was pleased about that. She also had a little growth spurt, per the doc, as her height is now in the 55th percentile. Other than a minor health concern, which should resolve with a few weeks of medication, she's doing great! Unfortunately, she had to end the appointment with a blood draw to check for lead poisoning (due to our zip code), but two princess stickers cheered her up pretty quickly. 

​As a last addition to her birthday celebration, we enrolled Adeline in her first dance class: a tap and ballet combo. She absolutely LOVES her new shoes for class and she felt fancy wearing some hand-me-down leotards we had on hand (which turned out to match one of her dolls perfectly). 

For her first class, she did spectacular. It was SO much fun to watch her dance in that little outfit and to see her following directions so well. She started the class by herself, but then asked for me to sit by her for the reminder, which a few parents did. The group has been working on a little performance for a couple months and Adeline caught on right away, copying the teacher's every move. She especially enjoyed the ballet portion, embracing the scarves and fairy wand that they were allowed to use. 

​I really think she's going to thrive in this class. She's been asking to practice every day since =). Just adorable. Here's a snippet of her doing one of the exercises where they were asked to walk on their tip toes and then do a spin before sitting down and passing the wand to the next child. 

Happy Birthday, Adeline! You enrich our lives beyond measure. In your words, "I love you so much in the world!"