I woke up this morning

(at 6 am no less) to a THREE year old in the house! (who refused to go back to sleep! But thankfully I have a great husband who eventually got up with her)

Happy 3rd birthday to my beautiful, adorable, amazing, precious, inquisitive, spunky, determined, stubborn, sensitive, happy, lovable daughter! There, I think that about sums you up!

Oh Kayla, if only I had the words to describe the last 3 years to you! It may be a cliche, but time really does fly. I wonder how in the blink of an eye you turned into this big girl.

I remember bringing you home from the hospital and the newness of you. Just watching you sleep most of the time...and now you run away from me!

I remember your first real smile. You just woke up from a morning nap. I went in to get you and gazed down at you smiling and talking. You made eye contact with me and smiled...all the way to your eyes. I had tears in my eyes seeing it for the first time. My heart swelled with so much love; I didn't know a smile could do that!

I remember the first time you laughed. I was so surprised to hear that little sound come out of you. I'm surprised I haven't busted your ear drums with all the squealing and screaming I do at high-pitched octaves when you do something for the first time! I immediately called your dad at work to tell him you laughed and I tried to get you to do it again while we were on the phone; to no avail!

I remember you finding your feet for the first time and eventually getting them to your mouth. They became your new favorite toy to chew on.

Every milestone seemes etched in my brain. I have enjoyed being your mom and watching you figure out how to do things. How to roll over, crawl, sit by yourself, stand alone, cruise furniture, walk, run, climb steps, walk up the steps, feeding yourself...and developing your personality.

You are so determined to go for a walk or at least just get outside. If we don't make a move to get our shoes fast enough, you do it for us. You open the closet and bring our shoes to us. You know which shoes are daddy's, which are mommy's and which are yours..and you always bring the matching pair. You repeat over and over, "shoes, walk, outside, park" how can we resist you when you're looking so cute like that?

There are so many quirks and cute things about you that we just love and get a kick out of. We can kneel down, open our arms and say "hug" and you throw your arms open wide, have a huge smile on your face, and you come running into our arms.

When we're holding you in a "group hug" you push our faces together to make us kiss and then you lean your face in so we can each kiss a cheek and then you dissolve into giggles.

I'm so proud of you for all you've learned this past year... more sign language, words, letters, shapes, colors, animal noises, brushing your teeth and hair, taking "care" of your babies, "reading" your books, and it seems a million other things!

You've learned so many new words too. I watched some video of you when you were not quite two and then after you turned two - you hardly said any words at all. I think mostly mama, daddy, and uh oh! You didn't even start saying the word "baby" until last Dec...when you were 29 months old! And now, just 7 months later you can say over 100 words! What a difference from last year!

I can't believe I'll be sending you off to preschool next month! I know you're going to have fun there though...you're such a social butterfly! You enjoy learning and I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Happy birthday baby girl!

Love, Mommy