We're glad it's your Birthday Dear Bea

Dear Bea,

I'm a day late, but I haven't forgotten to write about you on your Birthday!  Bea, you are one of a kind.  When I think about you I can't even express how much joy I get from being around you every day.  You have a huge personality and you constantly make me and your other family members laugh.  People always tell me I should get you into acting because you are so animated and friendly.  You hardly have a shy bone in your body and have an innate sense of confidence.  To accurately describe your voice I would compare it to the Munchkins on The Wizard of Oz. You love to talk and play with your friend Ella and your brother, Henry and sister Clementine.  You also love taking care of your baby dolls and you spend a lot of time wrapping them up, shushing them and pushing them around in strollers.  Your love for babies hasn't changed, but you now understand that you need to be gentle.  Yay!  Goodbye BK!

You love taking care of your little sister and you two are slowly becoming better friends.  Instead of running away from you with a look of horror on her face, Clementine enjoys your presence and you two have shared some tender moments and laughed together recently.  You play at the pool together and you push your strollers around together.  Whenever Clementine cries, you are quick to find her purple blanket or her bottle and then give it to her, talking like I do in a baby style voice, to calm her down.  You are really excited about your new baby sister that's coming in October.  You frequently talk to my stomach and tell her to come out.  You also don't like to be carried for fear you will squish the baby.  When we lay down at night together to read books, you rub my belly and say, "I'm not going to hurt my new baby sister".  What a relief! I have been singing to you the song, "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and in the chorus it says, "be gentle and loving in deed and in thought," and every time you ask me, "mommy, be gentle? Be gentle to the babies?"  I tell you yes and you gets a pensive look on your face and say, "oh, ok mommy".  I think it's finally sunk in.  It only took a year and 3 months to learn!

Just a funny photo of the girls and Daddy

Bea, you are still very average/small for your age and easily fit into size two clothing still.  Some size three outfits still look just a little too big for you.  It's kind of nice that you're so small because I feel like you'll be a dancer and I'm guessing smaller than me(I'm a very big girl) is probably better for dancing.  Somehow you just have a dancer's body, flexibility and movements and so for your Birthday I have signed you up for dance classes and you went to the first one today!  Your favorite book is Angelina Ballerina and have been talking about being in ballet for a long time.  You have a darling black leotard and a stacked, fluffy tutu.  At first you refused to put on your tap shoes(which is first) but when I threatened to take you home, you put them on and went into the room with a group of darling little girls you didn't know and had the time of your life.  You did very well following the teacher and participating in your lesson, which makes me so happy to see because Henry at that age was impossible to put in any sort of class and expect him to follow any instruction.  I almost cried when I saw you being so grown up.When you were told to go put on your ballet shoes, you have never beamed so bright! You love those ballet shoes!

Pointing your toes

You love to be clean, which I don't know where you picked up, and frequently change your outfits(sometimes up to 7 times per day).  When I don't know where you are, you are either changing your clothes or wetting down your hair.  You don't like your hair to stick out and even when it looks just fine you say, "mommy, my hair looks crazy!" and you flatten it to your head.  You love headbands and bows but won't let me do anything but a side clip in your hair.  Sometimes you have two or three hair accessories in at once.  You brush your hair all by yourself even when Henry whines and says he can't even comb his. You brush your teeth a couple times per day and I have to say you do a very good job on your own. 

Darling little ballerinas

One of my favorite things about you is that you are just about as capable as Henry in so many ways.  You make your bed and clean your room on a regular basis.  Every morning you get ready for your swimming lessons all by yourself and get dressed without me having to ask.  You are 98% potty trained and don't even wear a pull-up at night.  You can swim across the pool and don't love any activity more than being under water.  You love riding your pink bike and can already speed down the street riding it.  As you try to follow Henry everywhere, you get a lot of scrapes and bruises, but you recover quickly and love to put on band-aids.  Your Blankie is still preferred over anything I can offer for consolation and you don't throw as big of a tantrum for anything else as when we can't find your blankie.

Personality coming through

You often ask to go camping and you love hiking and playing outside in the dirt and in the water.  You don't mind getting dirty, but sometimes I think it's because you just want to take a bath or shower! One thing I do if I'm busy upstairs and you don't have anything to do is throw you in the shower.  In our shower we have a squeegie that might be your favorite cleaning tool ever.  You spend up to an hour washing and squeegie-ing the shower door with a very serious look on your face.  I usually have to pull you out of the shower because you are never satisfied with how it looks since after 5 seconds it gets misty again and you have to wipe off the water.  I can only get you out of the shower if I wake Clementine up and put her in the bath, in which case you usually want to join her. 

Bea, you really love to sing and your cute little voice is always heard all through the house.  Your favorite songs to sing are, "I love to see the Temple", "I'm trying to be like Jesus", and "Away in a Manger"(you know all three verses by heart).  You are also learning the 13 Articles of Faith songs with your brother, Henry, and do a very good job at pronouncing the difficult words.  Your favorite books are "Angelina Ballerina" and "Everyone Poops".  You love reading books and I can tell you will take after your Aunt Stefanie someday, reading entire Harry Potter books in one day.  Your teeth are still offset and you still sport a wicked underbite which I think inhibits some of your speech.  You have quite a few letter combinations you can't say, but you don't mind being corrected and are always willing to try to say things correctly, which usually ends up in a family giggle.  I have not been very diligent at teaching you to recognize your letters or numbers even though you know how to count and say the alphabet.  You do understand the concept of numbers though and you know your colors and shapes very well. 

Bea and Ella on Ella's first hike to Cecret Lake

Playing butterflies with Ella

Buddies

Sweet girls

I am greeted every morning by your smile waking me up(usually a little too early) and you crawl in bed with me to snuggle a little bit. I look into your eyes with our foreheads pressed together and we smile and giggle and hug as you stroke my hair and belly.  You have always been my little snuggler and I will never tire of holding your little body close to mine for a nice long snuggle.  You are such a wonderful, happy, fun, capable, lovely girl and I enjoy every year of your life more and more.  I will never forget last week when you said, "you're a really good mommy", just out of the blue.  I'm so glad you think so.  I am so blessed to be your mother and being around your amazing little spirit makes me continually be a better mother for you so you can reach your full potential and be nurtured like you deserve.  I love you to the moon and back little one.  Have a wonderful Birthday.

Happy Birthday girl

Love,
Mommy