Esther Marie is 35 Months Old Today!

Brushing...

Hugging...

Waiting...

Reading...

Laughing and Loving....It's ALL good!!!

Well, today Esther Marie is 35 months old! When I type that, it sounds like a lot to me..."35", but then I think.....hey, that is barely three! (She joined our family when she was 26 months old.) In another month, we will be celebrating her first birthday here in the states...and her daddy shares the same birthday....so it will be a big day! Not sure what we will be doing, at this point, to celebrate. I have to think about that some....will it be more low-key and close-to-home or will we try to make a giant party out of it???? I need to pray about what is best for her since she won't understand what it is all about yet. We have been trying to get her to hold up two of her little fingers and say that she is "two" but she hasn't caught on yet...so I don't think "three" will be any different...not at first. We'll see.....

She certainly is a smart little thing....and knows how to tell you or show you what she wants. The other night it was getting late and she came up to me chattering in her soft, sweet little voice. She had just had a bath with MaryAlyce and smelled so good. I hugged her and kissed her and said "uh huh, that's nice" because I didn't understand what she was saying. I was busy with something also, so she soon toddled away. I thought that was the end of it and something else had captured her attention. The next thing I knew, she was bringing me a big Dr. Seuss book that she wanted to read. I told her we would read it together in just a few minutes. Then she disappeared once again and came back into the kitchen a third time. This time she had my soft, fuzzy robe in her arms and she was indicating to me that I needed to put it on....NOW! She had gone up the stairs on her own to the bedroom and found my robe on the end of the bed...and had brought it back to me....all the way down the stairs...ALL BY HERSELF!! This certainly is one little girl who KNOWS what she wants and she will tell you or find a way to SHOW YOU exactly what she wants!!!! What she lacks in speech, she makes up for with brain power and determination. It really is an endearing quality!!!

At that point, I could no longer resist such an "offer" (not that I was really trying to "resist")...so I dropped what I was doing, got into that robe, and we headed for the den and our fuzzy orange (Go VOLS!) blanket for story time....Emmie, Mei Mei and me. It was another one of those moments that I will always treasure!!