happy birthday baby

(birthday letter to my casey.)

sweet casey

first of all, happy third birthday my love!  i really cannot believe a year has passed.  i clearly remember last years preparations and making your cake like it was just yesterday, but it was not.  it was 365 yesterdays ago,  and here you are at 3.  2 to 3 is such a big leap.  so many things have blossomed and changed this year.  you will forever  be my baby, but you are no longer a baby in any way. you are now a beautiful  little girl.  independent, fiercely at times.  you feed yourself, you brush your own teeth, you dress yourself, and may i say you got style girl!  you love "skirts" as you call them but what you really mean are dresses.  pink in particular, which still baffles me growing up right behind a superman thomas the tank engine aficionado.   but it is true you have embraced girly this year.  pink and princess, and even a pirate princess at times, or a cowboy princess you like to call yourself.  that is just perfectly you.  rough and tumble but in a frilly fairy skirt and tights.  you are silly and smart.  you sing and dance all the time. you are messy!  you almost require a bath after every meal.  you love to use your hands for everything.  you adore music.  but even more so you adore your big brother and sister.  you love big.  you share like no other.  if kellen is scolded, even for possibly wronging you  in some way,  you will stand right beside him to comfort him. this year you have become kellen's very best friend.  before you were the baby.  someone who took his toys knocked over his towers, colored on his pictures,  but now that has shifted.  you may still DO all those things but now you talk, joke, run, play, share, every moment with him.  you really love each other. you want to do everything he does. you 2 are pirates, and robots, chefs and waiters.  you get sad that he is faster than you.  but you are catching up.  you miss him if he is not here.  you say "where's kewen?!?!?"  all sad.  and just as much as you love him, he loves you right back.  he loves to make you laugh and he wants you to watch him always.  your vocabulary has just exploded this year.   words are no trouble for you.  2 words you do say funny that i want to remember are "eep-a-mol", meaning oatmeal of course, and "applepuss"  for octopus.  you just recently mastered potty training AND sleeping in a twin bed!  gone are the diapers, bottles, and crib.  things you love:  your "puppies" ( stuffed animals that you MUST have always)  you have 3, but 1 is your most certainly your favorite. you call it the best puppy in the whole world.   you love dancing.  you love riding on your daddy's shoulders. you love play-doh.  you love fruit.  you love music class.  you love the bath, though you have started showers now too.  you love to laugh and make your brother laugh.  you are a great hugger.  unlike your brother,  you care less about drawing coloring and writing,  you love to watch him do all these things,  but you'd still rather peel the crayons than use them.  you are the social butterfly.  you approach everyone with confidence and a smile and a "hi i'm casey".  you see someone at the playground and instantly you say they are "my girls"  like you knew them before.  you love to play outside, you are beginning to ride the tricycle all on your own.   you love to set up tea parties and play dress up.  you are beautiful inside and out.  you have your daddy's eyes,  warm brown eyes that sparkle. your nose still gets that wrinkle when you laugh,  your hair is a tangle of loose unruly and soft curls. your lost tooth only adds to that special something that is just you. you may have been born on april fool's day, but you are nobody's fool.  you shine little one.   ever so bright.  even more so than last year and who would have thought that possible?

a new day~another finger

you are my honey girl.  

you are my sunshine.

you are my silly.

you are daddy's wildflower.

and now you are 3.

happy birthday casey, momma just loves you SOOOOO!   

can 3 go a little slower though?  :) 

xo baby girl.

we love you and are so very proud of you.

(* if you click the little arrow below you can play last year's video montage.  i hoped to update it with new pics this year as well, but jumpcut is no longer allowing new uploads :(  it gets me every time i watch it.)

casey,  your song remains the same, even 1 year later. 

the words are so perfectly you. 

you are a shining star in my heart alright....