The Pumpkin's 3rd Birthday Celebrations

Birthdays are a big deal to me. To me, it's a special day just for the birthday girl(s)/boy(s). I like to make a big deal of them: I've always made a big deal out of my own, and now I'm making a big deal out of my kids' birthdays!

This year, the Pumpkin's birthday was on a Thursday. When she woke up, I was there with a "Happy Birthday" for her. She then said it was not her birthday. I tried to explain it was, but she insisted it was not. I let it go, figuring she'd get into it when she was more awake.

Which she totally did, especially when she found out I was going to make cupcakes and bring them into her school that afternoon!

I left work early on her birthday, bought her the birthday presents that Londo and I had talked about getting her, and went home to make the cupcakes using a mix I got from a nut-free facility. While I made the cupcakes, Londo put together the Pumpkin's dollhouse, which was her big birthday present. We went over to her pre-school with the Pookie and cupcakes.

The Pumpkin was so excited that we were there and had birthday cupcakes. She kept saying that she was going to "give cupcakes to evah-ree-one!" They were all excited, enjoyed the cupcakes and loved to look at the Pookie.

When we brought her home, she walked into the house and I pointed out her present was in the family room. She made her excited/surprised face and ran to it! She immediately started playing with it, and we gave her a few more toys. It was a good birthday.

The next day, I took off of work and kept the Pumpkin out of pre-school. We were having mommy-daughter day! When she turned 1, I had taken the day off and we went to the zoo together. Last year, I wasn't able to do anything special with her. But this year, we were having another special day.

First stop was the doctor's for her 3-year well visit. She's doing great. She's still in the 95ish percentile for height and 75% for weight, which shows that all those months of living on mostly air and sunlight did not adversely affect her growth at all. Her communication skills and physical capabilities are great, as always. Her sleeping problems, scary dreams, coming into our bed at night and all that? Apparently completely normal at this age/stage of development for all kids, even those without a history of sleep issues! All in all, a great doctor's visit, although she did need one vaccination shot to get caught up with the schedule (which she handled like a champ!).

After our sucessful trip to the doctor, I brought the Pumpkin into my office! She hears so much about me going to work and my coworkers hear so much about her, so I thought I'd bring the two together. She was a delight! She is so friendly and outgoing. She went right up to everyone and said hi, told them her name and sometimes quacked (she was being a duck). I let her sit at my desk and even answer my phone when my dad called! We had lunch at the deli across the street where I eat all the time. It was a really good visit.

Next, we went to the National Zoo! It is a favorite place of mine, and the Pumpkin has always enjoyed it. It was a cool, rainy Friday afternoon--which was perfect for us! We bundled in rain coats, used the stroller for her, bought a special umbrella at the zoo and enjoyed the almost empty (of visitors, not animals) zoo. We saw the pandas, the gorillas, the orangutans, the tigers, the lioness, some ponies, an emu, and a bunch of birds in the Bird House.

Probably my favorite thing and the Pumpkin's favorite thing (I think) was seeing the baby gorilla with his mommy. She's about a year old now, but she looked to be smaller than my 9 month old! She hung on her mommy, climbing up her back, just like my daughter does to me. We also saw the mommy gorilla using a computer that was in the trainers' area, which the Pumpkin has talked about a lot since. Believe her when she says that the mommy gorilla used a computers!

The next day was her birthday party, and on Sunday, she opened all her presents from the birthday party. We didn't open the presents at the party because there was too much else going on with all the arts and crafts, and we find it easier to open presents when there aren't a bunch of kids around who want to "help."

It was four days of birthday fun, with great memories and gifts that will last even longer. Now THAT'S a birthday celebration fit for a 3 year old!