Thursday my little baby girl turned 3!  She promised me she wouldn’t.  She told me she would stay 2 foh-evah, but she lied.  She’s growing up just like the rest of them and she turned 3 years old this week!

I love this little maniac more today than ever!  I love her smile and her feisty little self!  I just can’t get enough of her, which is good since she’s with me 99% of the time!

I just looked at my birthday post from when she turned 2 and not a whole lot has changed.  She still lives on my hip (my very pregnant hip), she’s still feisty, she still rules the roost, she still cracks all of us up pretty much all of the time!  She is funny, dramatic, expressive, and bossy!  And I love her so much it hurts!

The morning of her birthday, she woke up at 7:38, which was the exact time of her birth!  Crazy!  We all quickly went into her room singing “Happy Birthday to Pinky” and whisked her out of her baby bed, into the den to open gifts.

Preston had to leave for school and he wanted to see her open her big gift.

My little tiny baby girl got her very own “big girl bed!”  TEARS!

She was so excited!  All 3 kids were pretty excited!

We had to move her into a big girl bed because the baby is going to need the baby bed.  She and the baby are going to share a room, and with limited space, we decided a toddler bed was our best option.  That and the fact that she is miniature (weighing a whopping 25 pounds) and a toddler bed is PERFECT for my little Pinky!

.

That night we moved her new “big girl bed” into her room and tucked her in and she said, “In da mornin when I wake up and you come get me out…”  SWEET!  She didn’t realize that she had freedom!  However, the next day Brad overheard LK telling her, “Now that you have a new big girl bed, you can get out whenever you want to or when you wake up.”  Leave it to Lilly Katherine to teach her how to avoid sleep!  Thank you, daughter!

She has slept in her bed 3 nights now.  They have not been easy or smooth!  They have been long, rough nights for her, for Brad, and for me.  I am one of those mean moms that doesn’t like to go backwards once I start something (and the fact that I am going to have a baby ANY MINUTE NOW that will need that other bed is encouraging me to not retreat.)  She is going to figure the new bed out, and it really is perfect for her.  The adjustment has just been a little harder than we anticipated.

The good news is that she is staying in her bed.  Praise the Lord!  She just cries and wants to sleep in her crib.  Not an option.  We will get through this!  Just another fun parenting hurdle.

However, somebody please tell me…what was I thinking doing this 2 weeks before I’m due?  I NEED SLEEP NOW, because I know I will not be getting any sleep in the near future!

Yesterday we had a birthday party for AnnaLeigh and Truett.  My goal is to post the pics tonight.

.

Happy Birthday, my baby AnnaLeigh!  You will always be my baby, even though you will not be my youngest.  I love you so much!  I love that you love me!  I love that you want me!  I love that you have such a precious, loud, fun, strong personality!  I love that you love your brother!  I love that you love to play with your sister.  I love that you have the most precious facial expressions and you make us all laugh so much!  I love that you are such a little boss, because I KNOW you can and will hold your own!  I love that you are a woman who can get things done!  You can do anything you want to do!  I love that you love Sammy-dog, and any other animal you see.  I love that you “skip/gallop” everywhere we go.  I love that you are so tiny and compact that I can still hold you and carry you for hours.  I love that you can be reasoned with and talked to.  I love that you are my Pinky!  I love YOU!

.

Lord, please protect this little woman!  Please keep her physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy!  Please keep her spunk alive and help her to be anything that she wants to be as long as it’s within your will.  Please help AnnaLeigh to live for you and love you every day of her life and with all of her heart.  Lord, thank you for this amazing surprise blessing!  Thank you for knowing what I need and what our family needs.  Please help this little maniac to be a wonderful big sister.  Thank you for giving her the example of Lilly Katherine as a good big sister, and I pray that AnnaLeigh is as kind and loving to our new baby as LK has been to her.  Please keep those girls close, and thank you for blessing each of them with a sister, just as you did me!  Thank you for the special bond sisters have!  Lord, please also bless AnnaLeigh with wonderful friends that will encourage her and help her to look to you.  Please help me to teach her and train her to BE a good friend and a positive influence in others’ lives.  Lord, please help her to be kind and loving to all people, not judgmental or exclusive.  Please give her your Godly wisdom and discernment with every decision she makes all the days of her life.  Lord, please help her to know how much I love her and help me to SHOW her that daily.

-kate