I'm not sure how this happened, but my baby girl is three.
It seems as if I wasn't paying attention and when I looked up she had turned into a girl. Not a baby, not even really a toddler anymore. A full blown girl.
Lily is spunky. That means a lot of things, it means she's feisty, and stubborn and hard-headed and she wants to do everything all. by. herself.
She is a total drama queen. Which, I gather, she gets from me. So I hear. From everyone.
Having another girl in the house when you are so used to being surrounded by testosterone is an interesting thing.
Joey and Jake never went into screaming convulsions if I told them it was too cold outside to wear a skirt, or that their shirt didn't match their tutu. Nope. This is new territory, my friends. I'm handling the mom-to-a-girl thing as best I know how, which means I make a lot of mistakes and sometimes I want to scream. It also means that sometimes I have to just let go of control and let my daughter wear a pink tutu with a yellow shirt that she put on backwards and rubber boots. And that's okay, because the happiness she gets from doing it "all by myself!" is worth it.
I've talked about the differences between sons and daughters on my blog before, but it's just so true. It is a whole new world of crazy with a daughter. I am excited, and scared silly to see what the future will bring us with this girl.
For the last six months Lily has done nothing but talk about her "Purple Princess Party" that she was going to have when she turned three. She came up with this all on her own. I thought for sure she would want a Dora Party, but she was adamant back in June when the boys had their parties, that when it was her turn, she was having a Purple Princess Party. And she's been inviting people to it too. She'd see Nana and say, "Nana, you wanna come to my Purple Princess Party?" You get the point, she's been talking this up for a while. So of course I wanted to make sure this party was worth the wait and anticipation because six months? Is a long time for a two-and-a-half year old to be talking about an event.
And true to form, I stressed. And I worried. And I planned, and I stressed some more. And my husband gently reminded me that she is three. She is going to love it no matter what.
And then, we all got the flu three days before the party.
I was miserable, I was in bed for two days, I was so behind schedule and I was mad.
And I did something I usually never do, I asked for help. I called my mom and asked her to come stay with us the night before the party and help me get ready, and of course she was very happy to do so.
And let me tell you, my mom was a great help. She helped with food prep, decorations, she calmed me down and told me that no matter what Lily would love her party.
Jim told me not to worry about cleaning the house from top to bottom (which I was very concerned about doing so we could get the flu germies out) he said he would take care of it all. And he did. He is such a good guy, I don't know how I would function without him.
So between the three of us, well more like 2.5 of us since I was barely upright, we got the place decorated and the food made. And it was great.
When my very first tiered fondant cake did not turn out how I had wanted, and I stressed some more My mom told me it was beautiful, and that Lily would love it. And she was right. Lily loved it so much.
So Lily had a party, and it was a blast. And even though we were almost snowed out of the party, even though we had the flu and almost had to cancel, and even though it started pouring rain the minute we hung the pinata on the tree in the front and we were forced to whack the pinata in the living room, it was great. I hope Lily remembers her Purple Princess Party forever.
But please Lily, stop growing up so fast.
I love you so much.
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