Dear Peach,

Happy birthday, my sweetest little girl!  I can’t believe you are officially three. Truly, it feels like yesterday when I awkwardly held you in my arms overwhelmed by it all. I’m still overwhelmed. By how much I love you and how much that feeling grows every day. And by the little things.

Here are some of my favorite little things.

Oh, dear girl how you love to talk. About everything and anything. From the moment I see you by my bedside asking for morning snuggles to kissing you on your check as you beg to stay up just a little bit longer as you rub your eyes.

You have been known to prefer watching opera to cartoons.

You have officially entered the ballerina stage. (Post coming on that soon…)

You give good sad boo boo face–like someone drew an upside down U on your face.  Is it wrong that I love it so much?

I promise, I won’t call you baby to your face, knowing that you will immediately tell me you are NOT A BABY. You are BIG. A big girl. A big sweet good girl.

Last week when we were sitting at dinner, you saw the first star out the window and said we should all wish on it!  You wished that you could ride a cloud down a river.

You won’t wear gray.

After playing with a little sweet one year old who was toddling around, you turned to me and her mama and said, with such pride over your new young friend you declared, “she’s so smart!”

You are not adverse to a salad. But you aren’t too cool with eating the same meal three times in a row.

You won’t let me cut your hair. (Or is that Daddy…)

Thank you for using handkerchiefs to wipe your little nose when you have a case of the sniffles.

Somewhere along the line, my cat that I had for 13 years became your kitty and only your kitty.

You serve a mean banana lettuce salami pancake felt sandwich.

You have made the past three years truly magical. Thank you sweet girl for every exhilarating, hilarious, tiring, glorious minute you’ve been in my life.

Love, Mama