How I Spend My Children's Birthdays

Every parent in the world will tell you time flies. You humor them. You cannot imagine what is going on in their lives that makes time go so very quickly. Then you have your own kids. And at the same time you begin to understand you realize that the very presence of children causes some sort of space/time paradox where you go to sleep with a newborn baby and wake up the next day with a 5 year old.

When I started this blog Ava was just a baby. Then over the course of the past 3 years and 600+ posts she grew into a 3 year old. I still don't know how this happened. Every time my kids turn another age I spend the whole day/birthday party in disbelief. How did they get so old, so quickly? How did my little 7 lb 2 oz baby turn into a 35 lb 3 year old? Am I going to wake up tomorrow and she'll be graduating from kindergarten/high school/college?

I have this eerie and unwelcome feeling that the rest of their lives are going to be like this. One day they're sleeping on my chest, the next they're moving out and leaving me and their childhood behind.

As far as Ava goes, she is my sweet and forgotten middle child. She is caught somewhere in between Witten's babyness and Alana's going off to school. She is shy, but at the same time wild and outspoken. She is sweet, but she has her moments of brattiness. She is chubby with the squishiest butt imaginable. She has the longest eyelashes in the world. She is suddenly this person who can count and  knows right from left and all of the colors and sings along to the radio even when the song is not appropriate for a 3 year old to sing along to. She really does have the moves like Jagger though. She loves her sister, even though they fight. She loves her brother, even though he stole her baby status. She loves everyone, even when she's too shy to talk to them.

Ava has always been a good natured person. A middle child from birth, she never cried, never complained. When she got tired as a baby she just went to sleep, wherever we were. No muss, no fuss. Now she is playing quietly and nicely in the living room, not demanding anything from me but love.

Its hard to look at a 3 year old and see them as the baby they once were. Even with all of the pictures I've taken over the last 3 years, its hard to see that little baby I'm holding at the hospital and reconcile it with the 3 year old in a cupcake shirt sitting in the other room. I know I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't know how she got to be 3 so quickly. So for the rest of the day I'm just going to sit and stare at her, still not believing that she is already 3. Looking at her baby pictures. And occasionally crying or hugging her. Stupid time, passing too fast.

I'm pretty sure this was yesterday. She was my littlest baby. So tiny and cute.

6 months old. The love of Barbies starts early around here.

One year old. Walking around and getting into stuff like she owns the place.

18 months. Terrorizing Disneyland and loving the teacup ride.



2 years old. She is always happy when there's cookies.



2 1/2. Cutest baby pigtails.

3 years old today. Sweet and squishy.

Happy birthday my sweet girl!