Here is Abby this morning, celebrating her third birthday (in Colorado).
What in the world? THREE??? How, when, where did this happen?
In front of my own two eyes and under my roof is the answer to these questions, of course. And when I think about Abby, really think about her, it makes sense, this THREEness.
Our little Abs is a big girl, and not just in stature (90% for height), but in behavior. She talks a blue streak, can do big girl things like get herself dressed, wears undies (THANK YOU LORD!), and has been sleeping on the bottom bunk for some time now.
Abby continues to be fiercely independent. We sometimes joke that she doesn't need us. Unfortunately, that independence gets her in a lot of trouble. This kid single-handedly changed her preschool's dismissal policy due to deciding she would walk out the gate on her own and wait for me on the sidewalk. The positive side of her independence is that she can play really well on her own and can focus and get engrossed in an activity.
We recently learned that Abby can run. We always knew she could run away...but we now know she can run in the exercise sense of the word. Abby decided she wanted to join Samantha for a few laps during the elementary school's jog-a-thon in March...and then she decided she would run a few on her own (see previous paragraph on independence). Before we knew it Abby had run 8 laps on those little legs. That is over a mile! And to think, we were worried this child would walk on her knees forever.
This spirit of determination has also been observed by us in the swimming pool, where Abby wants to "swim" back and forth between Chris and I over and over and over again, despite being tired and water-logged and not really knowing how to swim. She is brave and strong and determined, this girl. I am so excited to see where these qualities take her.
Abby is really growing into her role as older sister and her interest in and affection for Hannah has taken a spike recently. She likes bringing Hannah toys, making Hannah laugh, and talking to her in a baby-voice.
Other things about our Abby-cadaby: confident, charismatic, strong-willed, Daddy's girl to the max!, persistent, strong, tough, loves dresses and costumes, loves baby dolls, good fine-motor skills, enjoys figuring things out and building, finally sits still for books (that only took 3 years), stubborn, ADORABLE (blonde curls are still hanging on), loves doing whatever her big sister is doing, can nap for hours, loves her two preschool mornings each week, loves one-on-one time (which is hard to come by), and this girl is still HILARIOUS as always.
Love you Abs.
You are full of joy, full of life, full of shenanigans.
Can't wait for another year to discover more about you.
