Happy Birthday Little Bird!

I can't believe that my baby bird is 3!  How did that happen?

When did she turn from this:

To this?

She has grown into such a sweet and smart little girl.  We are truly blessed to have her.

If I haven't already mentioned it, Livie is a planner and control freak, just like me. She likes to know details ahead of time, and tends to plan activities for herself within the framework of what we have told her. We are working on having her communicate those plans to us ahead of time, otherwise disappointment abounds. I have learned that if I tell her we are going to the mall, I need to tell her what mall. And what she will be allowed to do there. Otherwise, a quick trip to the Mall of America will turn into 20 rides and 2 hours at the aquarium in her mind.

Yesterday, I realized that I failed my child.  She has been surrounded by tears and sadness lately, and her birthday (party) has been quite built up in her mind as something fun and exciting.  Only problem is - I have yet to plan said party. Everyone will tell me that it is completely understandable, blah, blah, blah.  Reality is that I have been intending to call Pump it Up since August.  Not the end of the world - right?  There is always next month.  Except for the fact that I neglected to explain to Livie that one does not always have their birthday party on the same day as their birthday.

We went to the grocery store yesterday so that Livie could pick out her birthday cake.  To eat at home.  With just her immediate family.  Too bad she didn't know that.  I was horrified when she pointed to some cupcakes, declaring those to be for her friends at her party.  And a Dora cake to eat at home.  Oops.

I explained that the cupcakes would wait at the store until the day of her party, and we were just going to buy her home cake.  She was disappointed, but she seemed to understand.  At least I thought she did.

As soon as we got home, she wanted her Dora cake's picture taken next to her Carter cake.  Boots the body guard is now working double duty.

 

Livie fell asleep yesterday eagerly awaiting her birthday in the morning.  As soon as she was down for the night, I took off for Target (Shawn was home) to buy her a birthday card.  Who forgets a birthday card for a kid who is obsessed with reviewing the card options every time we go to Target?  Oops.  Again.  Thank goodness for Black Friday and late hours at Target, or Livie would have been stuck with whatever I could have found at the grocery store.

This morning I woke up to Livie sitting next to me in bed, jabbering away.  She was apparently quite excited to be 3.  After some begging and pleading, Liv talked us into getting up.  I had set-up all her presents in the living room the night before, so they would be the first thing she saw when she walked out there.  I left some things wrapped, but the hand-me-down Barbies (why buy new ones when my Barbies from the 80's still have plenty of play in them?) and all their accessories were set-up and ready to be played with.  Livie completely ignored her wrapped presents at first, and went right to town playing.  She was thrilled with her Barbies (not so much with the jeans and socks that I had wrapped up).

Then came the question - "When are my friends coming over?  Or are they meeting us at Pump it Up?"

ummmm.... what?  (I thought we had gone over this yesterday)

I again explained that birthdays and parties aren't always on the same day.  There were tears.  Lots and lots of tears.  And who can blame the kid?  I totally set her up for disappointment.  That is all she has had lately.  She got over it eventually, but I still feel like crap about it.

Thankfully, uncle Justin came over with his arms full of presents and totally brightened Livie's day.  Our bird was spoiled today.  Several new Barbie sets, several new Littlest Pet Shop Sets AND a new bean bag chair.  All from her favorite uncle.  Lucky kid!  Uncle stuck around to play with Livie and have some cake (check out her new sweatshirt from Dad!):

Livie is sound asleep on the couch now, all played out from her new toys.  Happy 3rd Birthday sweetheart!

One more picture for good measure.  When I bought Livie's bitty baby from Carter, I also bought her and her baby matching Christmas dresses.  It was the last present for Livie that I had bought while still pregnant, so they were Carter's gift to Livie today.  She yelled a sincere thank you up to Heaven (without prompting) when she saw her gift, and then began twirling around so that Carter could see her dress spin.  

(I was doing so good today, I hadn't cried once all day until I wrote the last paragraph.  Baby steps I suppose.)