A Very Merry Half Birthday

Yesterday, our beautiful little girl officially hit the 3 1/2 mark. This means that as of today she is closer to 4 than 3.

Yikes.

I say that with appreciation though. Obviously, we are over the moon to have a healthy, happy, vibrant 3 year old girl. We are so blessed and we are aware of that fact. But that doesn't make my heart stop wishing for time to slow down just a little bit.

Because I'm a sap for any and all special days, I've "celebrated" her half birthday since she was born. This is the first year that she had any kind of understanding what it was. That is after we explained about 50 times that it was only her HALF birthday and not her actual birthday.

I sang her this song a bunch of times - to the tune of Alice in Wonderland's UnBirthday Song.

A very merry half birthday to you!
A very merry half birthday, Riley Boo.
Today's the day, you're 3 and a half,
I can't believe it's gone so fast!
A very merry half birthday to yooooou!

Life with our 3 1/2 year old is never dull.  Riley is a non stop whirlwind of songs, make believe worlds, dances, imaginary scenarios of all sorts, Barbies, dress up, and princesses.  She loves being on the go, having adventures, and playing with her friends.  Lately she has been eager to spend more time at home and sometimes if we tell her we're going somewhere she responds with "But I want to stay here."

She wakes up smiling and goes to sleep smiling.  Every single day.  This is not to say that she is meltdown free everyday.  There have been a few times lately where she has made her opinion known, and boy can she throw a big fit with the best of them, but she is easily redirected and always ready to apologize and try again.

Riley is full of love.  I can't keep track of how many times a day she will say, "I wubs you Mom." and I'm soaking those precious words us up, stowing them away in my memory.  She is so proud to be a part of our family and often will say, "You, me, Daddy and Camden. We's a famil-wee and we stick together.  We wubs each other!"

She's learning new things everyday, adding more letters and numbers to her bank of knowledge.  She is a context learner and retains facts better if we link them to songs, rhymes, or experiences.  Riley's memory amazes us and there have been many times when TG and I will steal a surprised glance at each other over her head when she drops some random fact that we didn't even remember.  And song lyrics?  PSSSSH.  I dare you to show me another 3 year old that can hit every verse, punctuated "yeah", rap, and sound effect with the accuracy that she has.  We get so much joy in listening to Riley sing, bless her heart tone deaf though she is, she sings with gusto and we love it.

Riley talks from sun up to sun down and her thoughts just tumble right out of her mind.  She has wonderful insights, and keeps us on our toes.  Riley is developing her Daddy's sense of sarcastic humor and when she suspects we're teasing her she will smile at us and say, "Are you sneezin' me?"

As for her sweet sayings, I know most of my family and friends get as much enjoyment out of her word pronunciations as we usually do, but TG and I felt she should be making more progress in her speech development at this point.  We took her to speech pathologist recently and they agreed that she has some inconsistencies that need to be further examined.  They wanted us to spend a little time working on some exercises with her at home, but she may need speech therapy this fall.

Oh, sometimes when I look at her I can still see her in all her phases.  Rubbing her eyes like my sleepy newborn, delighted at the discovery of something new like my sweet one year old, or giggling uncontrollably like my spunky two year old.  But lately she's looking more and more like a very happy, super independent, beautiful 3...and a 1/2 year old who we love so dearly.

A very merry half birthday Riley Boo!