born imaginative.: Anna-Kate is THREE!

18 months
She's One
9 months
6 months
(Here's 3 months, newborn.)

Anna-Katherine, you are now THREE! You've been counting down to your birthday all week! You plan on getting presents. You hope your favorite people call you to sing Happy Birthday. You changed your birthday menu from pizza to hot dogs at your sibling's urging. (But you will also have cucumbers and shark fruit snacks...that you had at the fair last August and still remember and request). You say when you turn 3, we are to call you Anna-Katherine instead of Anna-Kate. We'll see how long that lasts.

You, my girl, are a delight! You are extremely articulate and talk ALL THE TIME. You talk like you are years ahead of yourself. You love nursery rhymes (the repertoire you can recite boggles my mind) and you also love books. You love talking on the phone. You insist you get a turn. You are a great advocate for yourself!

You are a perfect balance of wanting to interact with others and playing on your own. You are mostly helpful around the house. Your favorite toys are baby chickies, anything tiny with parts and the dollhouse. You like to do arts and crafts. Paint. Cut with scissors. You keep up with the big kids and tolerate their nonsense better than I do.

You eat most anything, except bread that's not homemade! Our dog gets an immediate treat of bread if it's not homemade, as you chuck it to her. If it's homemade, you don't waste it. You still love anything colorful. Salads. All fruits. Any colorful candy. You love eggs. Popsicles. You also try to sneak drinks of coffee.

One thing that's good about this pandemic is you don't go to stores with me any longer. You are not good in stores. You screech to see how loud you can get (for fun). Chuck stuff out of the car. Put stuff in the cart. Take bites out of things. Bringing you to the store is NO fun!

You have the longest prayers ever. And you say the same thing, on repeat. "Jesus, please love us and help us and love us and help us YOU AREN'T CLOSING YOUR EYES. CLOSE YOUR EYES! Jesus, please love us and help us and love us and help us ..." You certainly don't keep your prayers (or anything) silent.

You love people.You remember them, talk about them and talk to them. You love your friends too. You have a very special bond with daddy and miss mama immensely if we are parted for 15 minutes. Daddy says you're the perfect grand finale for our family. I, however, would love to have a whole gaggle of Anna-Kates! I treasure the time we have together, sweet girl. Happy Birthday!

Love, Mama