The Thelins: 3!

I can hardly believe it, but my little girl is 3! Actually now that I write it, I can't believe she's only just now 3. She seems so grown up to me. People have been asking me if she's 3 for about 6-8 months. She's a little bit tall for her age (62nd %-ile), but more than that she is so outgoing and gregarious, and she has an incredible vocabulary. This birthday was the first one that I've actually felt ready for. I cried when she turned 1, and I was so nervous about 2. I'm catching glimpses of why some mothers say "Terrible 2's? 2 is easy- 3 is the tough one!" Surprisingly, I'm not nervous for 3. We have our challenges- my girl has the best parts of her daddy (her outgoing, social and very engaging personality) and some of the not-so-great parts of her mommy (she's a little impatient, a total perfectionist, and incredibly head-strong, with a tendency to get a bit sassy). But even with those challenges, Peyton is an absolute delight.

We decided to wait to have her birthday party until my mom and siblings came to town to visit, so on her actual birthday, it was pretty low-key. I decided I wanted to start a tradition of waking up the birthday-person with birthday cake in bed, so I surprised her on her birthday morning with a cupcake and chocolate milk that I let her have in my bed. Jade had a golf tournament that evening, so he came home from work around 9 and took us out to a birthday breakfast. Peyton had chocolate chip pancakes, which she thought were okay, but she was more interested in my waffles with berries. After breakfast, Jade played with her outside for awhile before he had to leave for the golf course, and she was able to do her new favorite thing- ride her bike. After nap, we had a few errands to run, and then I let her choose what she wanted for dinner. Big surprise- she asked to go to McDonald's. So we went and had a nice healthy dinner of a yogurt parfait, and a chicken nugget Happy Meal with chocolate milk (something she would eat weekly if I would let her). She played in the play are for awhile, and when we left, she was a very tired and happy birthday girl.

Later that week, we had her 3 year check-up with our wonderful doctor. Peyton passed the developmental tests with flying colors, and our doctor was surprised and impressed with her gregarious and social personality. She weighed in at 27 pounds, which means she is out of the 1st percentile for the first time since she was 6 months old, coming in at the 12th percentile! She is 37 1/2 inches tall, which brings her into the 62nd percentile for height. Long and lean. Our doctor was enthusiastic about her jump in the charts- he asked "is she eating better?" Nope, she just finally had a little growth spurt!

For her birthday, Peyton requested a Pinkalicious party, in honor of one of her favorite books. I was excited about the easy and fun theme. We decided to just do a small, family party (actually no Thelin-family party is small- there are 14 kids 11 and under, as well as 11 adults that live in Portland). It was so fun, and Peyton had a blast. She was so into everything PINK. We made cupcakes that looked just like the cupcakes in the book, and we had pink treats with green food (so that they wouldn't turn pink, like the girl in the book). It ended up being absolutely adorable. And for some reason, I can never say no to pink and green (my wedding colors, baby shower colors, nursery colors, Peyton's room colors, obviously my favorite colors).

Cupcake and chocolate milk in mommy and daddy's bed. She thought it was the best thing ever.

Taking her first birthday phone call of the day from Noni

Birthday Breakfast

We made pink (it was dark pink- no watermelon Jello to be found at any of our close grocery stores) Jello in champagne glasses. Peyton was hilarious trying to drink it, before she realized it was solid. That would be a great April Fool's joke for all you parents of preschoolers!

Cute cousins

All week she had been worrying about her cousins singing Happy Birthday, because she was scared they would clap and "it will be too loud". She's become very sensitive to loud noises in the past few months. I was pleasantly surprised that when everyone started to sing, she did not cover her ears with her hands, but clapped right along!

Her favorites- the Bantons- gave her a big girl purse, stuffed full of purse necessities, since she wants to go through everyone's purses all the time. It was the perfect birthday gift, and she is obsessed with it. She has not let it out of her sight since she got it. It sleeps on her dresser at night and during naps, and it is the first thing she asks for every morning when she wakes up. She even had her first woman-moment with it: she was standing in the kitchen and all of a sudden she yelled "Oh no-, oh-no, my purse- where's my purse?" It was on her shoulder. I laughed so hard because I have done that more times than I would like to admit. The cutest part of the day was the birthday message her future husband Brock wrote to her (un-prompted): "Happy birthday, princess". SO CUTE!