A Big Milestone

So, our baby girl turned three a couple of months ago, and I am pretty sure I am still in shock. Some days, I just look at her and wonder where the time went. Yesterday, I had this snuggly little baby and today I have a little girl. A walking, talking, sweet, sassy, and funny little girl.

Our lives have been so crazy busy this year, basically in fast forward, but I am trying to treasure each and every moment while she is this age. Now, don't get me wrong. There are certainly days that I want to completely run away ... three can be hard. For the first time since she was born, I truly feel my patience is being tested. Up to this point, we could fake it pretty well, but now she is old enough to figure things out and reason with us. I do it MYSELF! No, dada told me I could do that. Why? Why? Why? Oh man.

We decided to celebrate her birthday at our local city pool, which is basically like a mini water park. It was a hot August day, and the pool was the perfect place to get together with some friends for a little par-tay. We showed up at the pool, and the manager immediately told me that there was a problem with the kid play area that we had reserved. I guess there was a drain problem, so the area had no water in it. The manager felt terrible, and told us we could use any other part of the pool that we wanted to, as long as we wanted to (even after it was open to the public). The manager kept apologizing, but honestly I was thrilled. Most of the kids were older and wanted to swim in deeper water any ways, and the kids area usually has a huge dumping bucket that freaks Ella out. As the kids area filled up, some of the dads helped pour big buckets of water down the slide so the kids could use it, and Ella wanted to help out. She stood there for about 10 minutes, pouring water down the slide and telling kids it was "their turn". Cracked me up. Finally, we talked her into going down the slide herself :).

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pool pics at the party, but here is an old one so you can get what I am talking about:

We took a break from swimming to enjoy some ice cold drinks, beachy cupcakes, goldfish crackers, and fresh watermelon. The food was a hit.

I was so proud of these cupcakes ... my favorite vanilla/vanilla cupcake recipe with crushed graham crackers for sand and a little blue food coloring for water. I found the perfect candy for beach balls and melted white chocolate into a mold to make seashells. Lastly, I stuck in a colorful cocktail umbrella and wah-lah!

Ella had a blast opening gifts from all of her friends - she scored some pretty nice stuff! Once again, I was slacking on the picture taking department. Way to hard to be the party planner/organizer, the bday girl's mom, and the photographer!

It was an amazing day, and we all had so much fun. The icing on the cake (no pun intended) was that the manager credited me for the cost of the pool rental, so it was totally free. WOOHOO!

On Ella's actual birthday, we had a quiet celebration at home with my parents and my great aunt at our house. We had a nice dinner and Nana Heeter made Ella the perfect cake for such a big girl.

  

She got a new book set from Hallmark where this little bunny, Abigail, responds to certain lines that you read. Of course, we had to read it over and over!

Ella has grown up so much in the last few months. She has been independent with most things for a while now ("No, I do it myself"), but lately she has been dying to help us with things around the house ("I help make that, mama!"). She also loves to help take care of us - bringing us a blanket if we are cold, giving us a "check up" if we feel sick, telling us, "it's okay, mama, it was just an accident" if we spill something. I have a feeling she is going to take care of others for a living one day.

Ella loves helping out in the kitchen. Here, she is helping me make some oatmeal raisin cookies (my favorite recipe right on the lid of the Quaker Oats canister) ...

I think she stuck that spoon right into her mouth right after dada took this pic :). She can be sneaky like that. The other day, she was unwrapping caramels so I could make a caramel apple cake, and at one point, I looked over and she was licking the caramels before sticking them in the bowl; needless to say, we had to eat those up and start all over. I think that was her plan all along.

Here, dada is teaching her how to hit a ball off a tee. She did awesome! I am thinking we need to get her involved in some athletic activities very soon.

  

Here she is finger painting! She loves doing creative, crafty stuff.

Here she is being her silly self in the tub ...

Corn on the cob on a hot summer afternoon ...

The biggest change of all? She started preschool! The transition was much harder on me than it was on her. She was excited to be a "big girl" and go to to a "big girl school" where she could learn, play, and meet new friends. I, however, had a hard time saying goodbye to the person that has been watching her every weekday since she was 12 weeks old. We had Lisa and John over for dinner to thank them for everything they had done for us. What a wonderful family ... I miss seeing them every day.

On her first day of preschool, Ella woke up ready to start the day. She wore a cute outfit, a new backpack, and a beautiful smile.

Dropping her off was cake ... she gave us big hugs and kisses and ran right into the room to play with her new friends.

I love how much she is learning every day. She is talking like mad and uses all kinds of new vocabulary. She'll just randomly throw a word out there that I didn't know she knew ... yesterday, it was "decorate". She knows all kinds of new songs, too, but sometimes mixes them up a little. "Mary had a little lamb ... who lives down Drury lane" and "Lou Lou, skip to balloon ... flies in the butterfly, shoo fly shoo". If you tell her that she is silly, she says, "I not silly, I Ella Rose Gaghen!". Like I said earlier, she is very sneaky. Lately, she has been trying to eat breakfast at preschool even after she eats at home. One morning, she told her dad, "don't tell that lady that I already eat breakfast" - lol. One of the funniest (and most embarrassing) things about this age is the lack of a filter that they have when talking - they just tell you how it is. Ella is proud to share that "boys have a peanut and girls have a gina". It's almost impossible not to laugh, but I don't want her to think it is so funny that she needs to announce it to the whole world. Right now, thank goodness, she just reminds us :). Oh, how I love this child.

The weather has cooled off and it is officially fall. I'm looking forward to apple orchards, trips to the zoo, Halloween, and baking pumpkin bread with my sweet girl!