Happy 3rd Birthday, Lily!

      The past couple of weeks have been nuts, hence the blogging hiatus.  We were at my sister's wedding last week, which was beautiful and wonderful and exhausting.  More about that to come.  First things first - our oldest, our Lily, turns 3 today!
      After being about a week overdue with her, I was induced on a Wednesday night.  Very early Friday morning, after all of those long hours, Lily made her way into the world on January 9th!  She made us parents, and after a long first week with her when we figured out the hard way that she was not getting enough to eat (we still call that week, "the dark days"), we have had to earn our parent stripes in many hard and wonderful ways with her.


Moments after she was born.




      The ways that Lily is amazing never cease to amaze me.  She is so loving to us (last night in the car she kept saying, "I love you SOOO much!" using different intonations), and she is becoming a bit of a cuddle bug in her ripe old age.  She is creative and so entertaining - I am currently listening to her sing "Happy Birthday to me!" repeatedly during her rest time.  She is a loyal little soul, who already loves her family and friends so well.  Though she is usually a bit stand-offish upon meeting people, once she warms up, she is very kind.  Lily is the best big sister in the whole world and is almost always on the look-out for ways to take care of Bella.
      Parenting her has been more rewarding and challenging than anyone could have really prepared us for, and I feel that God is shaping us all through the constant rub of being a family together.  We are so thankful for the great blessing of health and joy in this stage of life.
      Because of the craziness of the last couple of weeks, I opted to do her party a couple of weeks from now to give me a little time.  But, we wanted to make today seem fun - so, we filled the hallway outside her door with balloons.  This process went mostly well, until some of the balloons started popping as we were moving them late last night, because a few were filled a little too full.  John said, "I guess we decided to give the gift of psychological warfare to our child" since the popping certainly echoed in the hallway.  Fortunately for us, it was only a few pops and only Bella stirred a bit.  This morning, when we were waiting in the hallway to greet her as she came out, she opened the door, spotted the balloons, ran back into the room and started crying.  We may be learning that she might not like to be surprised.  After a few minutes and getting Bella as well (who was thrilled about the balloons), Lily warmed up to it all, and they had a grand time playing.

I guess balloons are fun, after all.  We are in the thick of planning her Panda Bear Party.  I was thinking of doing a Penguin theme, since that is wintery and cute, and when I pitched it to Lily, she said, "No.  I want a Panda Bear Party."  So, that is what we are doing.  She is excited about it, though there is confusion about when it is, and she was asking for all of her friends to be here after her nap today.
      Happy Birthday, Lily.  You are one of the Lord's most precious gifts to us, ever, and we are so thankful and blessed to be chosen to be your parents!